nysalogs | ❪ march event log: taken! ❫

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❪ march event log: taken! ❫

CW: This event log will contain descriptions and threads involving extreme violence, torture, and possible death. While we do not intend to push beyond any boundaries indicated in sign ups, players may opt out of any aspect of their group write-ups that they find uncomfortable.

Characters who have been assigned a role for this month's plot will find specific information about their groups and locations in headers below. We encourage that you thread among your groups within these headers, and as a reminder, only characters with plot roles may participate in rescue threads or hostage situations. All characters, however, are welcome to toplevel and tag in this log.

To receive special commendation and be recognized as heroes in a future post, hostages and rescuers must submit a short summary of their event participation HERE by March 24th.

OVERVIEW

While the riots and fanatic celebrating in Olympia and Wyver have subsided, neither city is naive enough to believe that life has yet returned to normal. There remains a tension among the citizens: not the slow simmer waiting to boil over that had preceded the aforementioned events, but an apprehension and fear that, despite the Royal Guard and Knightryder’s best efforts, the worst is yet to come.

In Olympia, as night falls on the 18th, their fears are proven true.

With their previous attempts at revolution through the riots having fallen short, the anti-Simwe radicals in Olympia carry out a more covert operation in their efforts to seize power. Having compiled a list of persons of interest, observed them, gathered intel and taken efforts to ensure that their movements will not be tracked, the radicals strike on the night of the 18th. The entire operation is discrete, and one by one people go missing from streets, homes, and businesses.

News that the kidnappings were a large scale operation doesn’t break in Olympia until the following day, but whispers have already travelled to a similar group of radicals in Wyver, who, fearing what a political coup in Olympia would mean for Wyver—or, more specifically how this could affect their chances to stage their own coup should Shanrian choose to step in—launch their own gambit for power with a similar scheme in the early hours of the 19th before dawn. Many are taken straight from their homes, or on their way to work.

For all their historical tension and division, Olympia and Wyver aren’t that different once the authorities become aware of what has happened. Both cities remain on the alert. In Olympia, Simwe orders immediate action from the Royal Guard, eager to win over the loyalty of her citizens by showing her commitment to freeing the hostages, while in Wyver, Shanrian is equally quick to take action with the Knightryders. The Altar of Volkkra is one of the most sacred institutions in Wyver, and the threat of the radicals drawing followers using its banner is too great to ignore.

ABDUCTIONS AND THE SEARCH

1. Radical groups in both cities have decided that certain citizens of their respective cities would prove to be valuable hostages. Perhaps you've been traveling between cities. Or maybe you've drawn their attention by being outspoken, excelling at your city job, or being an active citizen with a great reputation. What were you doing before you got snatched up? Did someone attempt to stop this terrible thing from happening, to no avail? Did you put up a valiant fight? Regardless of how it happened, you will be forcibly outfitted with an accessory that renders you completely powerless. The extremists are no strangers to magic, either.

2. Those that didn't sign up can still witness characters being abducted and attempt to stop it, though in the end they'll fail to stop the radicals. Characters who either witness these kidnappings or notice the absences can spread the word via missing persons posters, making calls to action, or embarking on searches. Characters that would ICly look for hostages but did not sign-up for the event can still go investigate, but will ultimately not find any kidnappers. All characters may also conduct investigations in locations not included in the clues.

3. With key figures around the cities abducted, several shops and organizations are left stressed and short-staffed. Characters may find themselves working long hours, and can volunteer to help the Guard/Nightryders as they're stretched thin, as well as other key locations such as the Institute, the Fields of the Exalted, etc. There are also children, elderly people, and pets who have been left without care, due to their guardians being kidnapped. Everyone is asked to lend a helping hand.

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

1. As rescues take place, extremists will be fleeing the following locations: Simwe Institute, the Sanctuary, and the Royal Guard Academy for Olympia, and a cave high on Namarak Mountain, or an island tower off the coastline for Wyver. Characters that did not sign-up can still catch and round up fleeing radicals as hostages are rescued, with additional details on what the extremists in a particular region are capable of in the group details below.

2. Hostages, both NPC and PC, will be gradually found and recovered between March 18th to the 24th. With how harrowing the experience is, rescuers and abductees alike may require medical attention and a helping hand. Perhaps you hope to support them with a shoulder to lean on, or by being there on Natha Station when any dead awake. Either way, the extremists may be defeated, but morale across both cities has taken a hit.

3. Healing doesn't always mean taking care of just the physical harm. Affected people in the cities, both PCs and NPCs, may have significant emotional scars from their experience. These are much harder to heal, and may not be going away anytime soon, but the people are doing their best to provide happy distractions to those who were taken hostage. Acts of kindness are encouraged and appreciated. Perhaps you can cook a few meals to take a burden off their shoulders, organize a fundraiser to help with relief efforts, or read a book to someone in recovery. A little bit of your time may go a long way.

FINAL OOC NOTES

Once again, hostages and rescuers may find detailed info on their scenarios in subheaders below. These may also be used as top levels for each group! Additionally, all characters, including those that did not sign up, are welcome to toplevel in this log.

For characters that are dying, please be sure to review the FAQ on death! We've updated it to provide more details for everyone this event.

Don't forget to submit a summary of your event participation to guide our plot forward and earn influence with the NPCs!

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[He's not waking up.

She'd tried taking out that weird stone in the hopes that it was the cause, and while physically Steve might be starting to do better, she can still feel his nightmare like pinpricks on the edges of her perception. And as the hours go by and Steve still doesn't wake, Wanda starts to get anxious. Technically nothing is preventing her from fixing it but her own fears - what if she just makes it worse? She'd seen what the radicals did to the group she rescued. Power-wise, they can't match her, but this is more sophisticated than severing the connection between someone and the Mind Stone.

But now it's starting to feel like Steve may not wake up at all without intervention, and at that point she can hardly hurt him worse than he is already. Wanda takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and reaches out to grab the threads of the nightmare and twist them into something else.

She thinks of safety and the scene shifts - not the void anymore, but Novi Grad as it was. It's nighttime, summer from the feel of it, and though the buzz of the city is audible there's no one else on the streets. Just them.]

Steve?

[She hopes he'll still recognize her without further meddling, but in the state he's in it's hard to pick apart just how much damage they've done.]

[ Steve is standing in the middle of a courtyard, arms hanging loose at his sides, hands balled into tight fists. There's a fountain ... buildings all around them. Houses, dimly lit - but it's friendly. It's unexpected.

He has no idea how he got here, only that it's no longer dark. He can hear the distant echo of a creature's scream and it taunts him.

He doesn't trust this place. He doesn't trust much of anything right now.

When he hears his name, it's laced with the high-pitched screech of the flapping creature so that it's hard to recognize the familiarity behind it. His shoulders tense and he surveys his new surroundings but he doesn't notice Wanda yet.

Swallowing, he calls out: ]

Who's there?

[Well that's...not a good sign. In the real world, Wanda frowns. It might not have been as convincing, and she wouldn't have been able to project that same feeling of safety, but maybe she should have tried to recreate the compound.

At least the architecture is obviously wrong for Olympia, or anywhere else on El Nysa for that matter.]

It's just me. Just Wanda. [But if he's forgotten her voice, her name won't be much help, will it?] That thing isn't going to hurt you anymore.

Edited 2018-03-20 14:14 (UTC)

You don't know that.

[ Steve sounds a hundred percent convinced of this. He turns and when he does, he seems to look past Wanda - just for a second - before his eyes come back to focus on her.

He sees her now.

He remembers her.

Wanda Maximoff. Avenger. Kind and funny and strong. Something like a kid-sister to him. ]

We've gotta get out of here before they find us.

[She shakes her head.] No, they won't.

[She wiggles her fingers and a small tendril of scarlet winds between them. See? Her abilities are working just fine and without their fancy little cheat stone, whatever the rebels did to Steve can't match her raw power.]

I made it go away. You're safe. [And because she knows Steve too well:] So are the people that were with you.

[ Steve's eyes go to her fingers and the wisps of red magic circling around them; it's a welcome sight. He's never had much of an opinion on magic or magic-inclined abilities, but right now it's a comforting thing. ]

How?

[ He means to respond to her comment about the people who were with him.

All he remembers is the chaos and the cries for help, the appearance of more faces, new faces - and the futility he'd experienced trying to defend himself or anyone else.

But with how delirious he feels, how unsure, it really could mean a lot of things. How did she get here, how was she able to use her powers, how did she make that beast - who'd been torturing him and his fellow captives for days now - go away?

How are they doing this?

Is she even actually here? Is this even really Wanda or some kind of illusion meant to trick him again? ]

So many people were missing that we split up to look. One of the groups found you.

[Wanda seems to deflate a little - in this, it feels like she's failed somehow. So much pain, so much suffering...and all of it so cleverly masked that Wanda couldn't simply point them out. She couldn't find him, couldn't be there for him when he needed her.]

You've been asleep for days. I...I didn't know what else to do.

[She could have let his mind craft a scenario to her specifications, but it seems kinder to send a projection of herself. He seemed oddly aware for someone supposedly dreaming.]

I'm not asleep. I can't seem to fall asleep; I feel like I've been awake for months.

[ An effect of his inability to differentiate between this world and the real world, or this real world and the dream one, of course.

He's not even sure what to think about this strange place; he's confused. One of the groups found him, found the others.

That means - ]

Is Peggy okay? Are you okay? The others --?

[Wanda smiles sadly. Oh Steve...]

Look around. Do you know where we are? We couldn't be here unless you were dreaming.

[And if he doesn't recognize the city's architecture, the white castle on the mountain should be familiar enough. You don't storm a HYDRA base without preparation.]

Peggy and I are safe. She's barely left you. But the others... [Wanda looks away and bites her lip. She doesn't want to tell him, but she can't lie to him, either.] We can't find Tony, Thor, or Bucky.

[ Strangely enough, that kind of logic seems to make a hell of a lot of sense. But Steve's been in and out of dreamscapes and realities for days now ... logic doesn't have a place here.

Or it didn't, anyway.

Now that Wanda's here (and he's beginning to believe it really is her and not something he dreamed up) he takes a moment to pause and think about it. About the logic.

He surveys their surroundings, glad to hear about Peggy and Wanda before his attention snaps back to her the moment she mentions Tony, Thor and Bucky. ]

They're missing?

We can't find them and they don't answer messages. Maybe it is nothing, maybe...

[They're either super under the radar, kidnapped, or have fallen back into stasis. Maybe some combination of all three. But right now there's no way to tell which.

Wanda shifts uncomfortably and masks it by climbing to sit on the side of the nearby fountain, letting her feet swing freely.]

When you're ready, I think I can wake you up.

Maybe it's something.

[ Steve's expression deepens, worry for his friends flooding into his consciousness. And for a moment, for a brief moment, he swears he can hear the cries of the beast as though it can smell his fear and worry and thirsts for it.

He flinches in expectation, feeling the phantom pain of the creature's talons swiping across his chest, sometimes digging in a little too deep.

No. No, it's not real.

He wills himself to calm down - exhales through his nose - it's fine. It'll be fine. And if he wakes up, he can look for them. It'll be the first thing he does.

He looks to Wanda, masking his own discomfort. ]

You didn't hear that, did you?

[ He pauses. ]

Get me out of here, Wanda.

No.

[He makes a valiant effort to mask it, but she can still see the flinch. Something has clearly frightened him. But there's nothing there, nothing she can feel actively fighting her hold on the dream.]

I just need a minute...

[And then an odd thing happens - Wanda's dream-avatar goes stock-still, almost fading out of focus while her attention is drawn elsewhere. Novi Grad remains 'alive' as much as Steve's mind can fill in the blanks of what a city should be. But for those brief seconds he's almost alone.

She tugs his consciousness up, towards waking, and they snap back to reality together. Wanda finds it disorienting, and she has to blink several times at the sudden light before her eyes and mind properly adjust.

Note to self: It's much less disorienting to wake someone when you're not standing in their dream with them, although she hadn't wanted to leave him completely alone.]

Steve? Are you all right?

[ The suddenness of Wanda's form changing from fluid and alive-ish to something out of a video simulation has Steve's pulse quickening, and he chides himself for being so goddamned jumpy. This place ... this endless nightmare ... all of it has really rattled him out of character and he hates it.

Hands clench into tight fists at his side, but he waits ... waits until he can feel something niggling at him, something that starts from somewhere inside his head and tugs the rest of him up and out of this dreamscape.

He doesn't breathe, holding himself taut right up until he can feel himself finally leaving the nightmare behind, and with it the last tie of the beast screaming somewhere in the distance.

Conscious now, Steve's eyes fly open, his heart suddenly beating hard.

He inhales as though he's gasping for air. ]

[ Steve has been asleep for three days — maybe longer, she doesn't know what happened in that classroom beyond the frantic snatches she gleaned from other hostages. He's been missing for longer than that and she had hoped the group of hostages she recovered would have him amongst their number, but no such luck. And she's held it together admirably (for the most part), but it's been so hard and she wonders at how much having him back in her life has changed the part of her that could compartmentalise all of this so easily. She had grieved his loss years ago, mourned the life they could have had together — but the threat of losing it all here, now, has made her realise just how important he is to her.

He was never in danger of being killed. The war carried that certainty more than even this. But having him out of reach like this was no easier. So when Wanda Maximoff says she can try and bring him back with an ability Peggy can't even begin to understand, there's no other choice but to say yes. And hope for the best.

She doesn't count the minutes. She doesn't know how long they've both been under and Wanda is so still, Peggy finds herself almost holding her breath with it, too. And then suddenly — they're both back. ]

Steve. [ His name breaks on half a sob (she isn't crying, not really, but it's a near thing), her hand tangling with his as she surges forward in her seat to cup his face with her bandaged right hand; her face is a breath away from his, she kisses the corner of his mouth. ] Oh, my darling. It's all right. You're all right.

[ And then she looks up at the younger woman, as breathless as they all must feel. ]

Ms Maximoff — Wanda — thank you.

[ Steve's vision clears and so fades the echoes of a screeching beast and flapping wings. He won't forget it for some time, but for now he takes in his surroundings in rapid succession like he's come up from underwater and he can breathe again.

He feels Peggy's hand on his face, feels her warmth against his skin. His mouth curves into a faint, tired smile. He's never been so happy to see anyone before and for a moment he's quiet, just studying her face hovering over his, memorizing every feature. ]

Peggy. [ His voice sounds a little hoarse when he finally speaks. ] God, it's good to see you.

[Wanda's still a little dazed but is able to manage a smile.]

I'm just glad it worked.

[Although it would be a lie to say that she's not very worried that her kind of 'help' was even necessary. These rebels were too well organized and much stronger than anyone had guessed, and they still haven't caught the leaders. It would be foolish to assume that everything's going to be okay now.

Still, in the moment she's happy she's at least been able to bring Steve and Peggy back together. Small victories.]

[ No, nothing is sorted. They aren't in the clear, any of them. And now the refugee population has proven that they are a force to be reckoned with, which might incite something bigger the next time. But for now they can take this win and by God, will she. ]

And you, [ she whispers, resting her forehead against his and closing her eyes. ] Don't ever do that again.

[ She knows it's a futile thing to say. Steve Rogers and "trouble" go hand-in-hand just as much as he does with Peggy Carter. But she has to say it, for what it's worth. She remains like that for a time then draws away reluctantly, turning to face Wanda — and then, abruptly, she wraps one arm around her in an embrace. It's a rare gesture for a woman as reserved as Peggy and it speaks volumes to how worried she was, how relieved she is now; and how grateful. ]

[ Steve closes his eyes, mouth still curved into a smile, when Peggy leans in to press her forehead against his. The small, subtle motion is just one of those things he's grateful to be around for.

He glances between Peggy and Wanda, not saying anything for the moment.

He won't think about the haunting imagery and the equally haunting sounds today. He won't even think about the very real possibility that if everything hadn't turned out the way it had, he might not be here. No, today's a day to be grateful to be back here in the presence of his friends, his family, his loved ones. ]

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❪ march event log: taken! ❫

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