[Day 225] [EVENT] A sinking feeling

[bastionmods]

Who: Anyone and everyone
Open: Open
When: Early morning on Day 225
Where: Everywhere in the Bastion
What: Remember how cores used to be a thing? Yeah, they're still important.
Format: any
Warnings: terrible modpuns

[Early in the morning on Day 225, most people are probably asleep. For the couple of stragglers who may still be awake so late, though, they may notice something strange. At 2:31 am, any lights that are on start to hum, and flicker in and out of dimness.

At 2:32 am, every light in the Bastion (excluding the emergency lights) shuts off entirely.

At 2:33 am, a horrible grinding noise can be heard throughout the Bastion, seemingly coming from everywhere at once. This sound continues on for several minutes, throughout everything else that begins to happen.

At 2:34 am, for anyone outside Nathaniel can be seen running from the Apartments towards the Monument as if his life depended on it.

At 2:35 am, ever so slowly, sections of the Bastion begin to sink.

What do you do?]

Comments

NATHANIEL THREAD

[bastionpc]

[Anyone who's interacting with Nathaniel at the moment, go here for a group thread. Currently Nathaniel is running towards the Monument, dodging around sections of the Bastion as they start to sink.]

[amnesiadragon]

[Ryu rushes out as he hears the noises around them growing, and follows Nathaniel. He's transformed, and his fists are flaming in order to provide some light. Fortunately, he can hover, and so he makes it to the Monument pretty easily.]

[freedom_engineer]

[Well, THAT sure is ominous.]

[That is also Colin rushing out of his workshop wearing nothing but shorts and his toolbelt. He's got a flashlight in his hand, a very, VERY bright flashlight, and it's on.]

Gods above and below... Why didn't I make an PA system?!

EVERYONE, GET YOUR ASSES UP! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

[Yep, he's just going to keep running around, making sure everyone's awake. He's running through where they went wrong, and the first thing that comes to mind is they never held evac drills...]

CHILDREN AND PARENTS, GET TO THE DOCK!

EVERYONE ELSE, GET TO THE SKYWAY ENTRANCE!

[heptagram]

[Patchouli is still awake at this hour. Since, you know, bizarre sleep schedule. She has indeed been kinda curious about why her light went out. Probably just crappy wiring, she reasoned. Anyway, hearing Colin yelling, she jumps out the window of her bedroom.

The third-floor window of her bedroom. It's a good thing that she can use her floating ability to slow down her descent. She'd probably do people even less good if she broke any bones.]

What's even going on?!

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[Amazingly, Rob doesn't wake up right away when the grinding noise starts, though he does stir in his sleep. Then Paar roars. There's no way Rob's sleeping through a dragon's roar. His initial grogginess is instantly dispelled by the grinding noise, and he reaches over to his bedside table to turn on the lamp. Nothing. The noise is still going, and he fumbles in the dark for the cargo shorts he was wearing the day before; he may have his boxer shorts on already, but he's going outside in just them. Besides, he never removed stuff from the cargo shorts before he went to bed, so his knife is still on the belt.

He feels his way down the stairs and opens the front door right as Colin yells something that sounds terrifyingly close to an evacuation order. If this is some prank he's going to stab someone, but he's not about to risk calling this bluff. He grabs his sword from where it's hanging next to the door and hurries out.]

What's going on!?

[doctor_dragoon]

[Yukio's one of the few still awake at this hour, still poring over his homework in the only occupied office of the hospital, so he's perfectly alert when the lights go out and that awful grinding sound begins. He wastes a minutes or so reassuring Oshawott (that's one hell of a way to wake up, poor thing) and staring out the window trying to spot the source of the noise. It's only when the yelling starts and he's on his way down the stairs that he feels what's happening. Or he thinks he feels it. It's hard to be sure while he's rushing through the building, but even the idea of it is terrifying.

Once outside he spots Colin and runs over, keeping pace even with his weapons at his back and a nervous looking Oshawott tucked under one arm.]

Colin-san! Are we sinking?!

[windgod]

[Ippo had almost fallen out of his bed at the sound of Colin's voice, and had almost fallen into a sinkhole on the way out of the apartment building, but in no time he was at Colin's side]

Colin! What else needs doing?

[Now wasn't the time for stupid questions and Ippo knew two things; he was fast and he was strong, if Colin could put that to use, then all the better.]

[hellpyre]

[The grinding noise is pretty damn awful, and a horrible way to be woken up. For most people it's damn near deafening. But for some one like Rin, with her sensitive hearing?

There's a pretty good chance that 'damn near' is going to be closer to an 'actually'.

She bolts up with a panicked start at the beginning of it, but seconds in it feels like her ears are being assaulted with knives. She actually screams, throwing both hands over them and curling in to a ball where she had sat up.]

[kyotoprincess]

[Bon had woken up pretty quickly once the strange noise started, so he's wide awake when Rin starts screaming. Instinctively he reaches over to her, to also cover her hears with his hands (it has to be the noise, it's loud enough for him and he doesn't have the sensitive hearing like Rin does.

But soon it becomes clear that the noise isn't stopping, and the ground starts to shake as well.]

An earthquake?

[Years of living in Japan has conditioned him to think that ground-shaking is just an earthquake. A moment later, though, he realizes how impossible that is. The Bastion is solid, but the ground underneath it isn't deep enough to produce earthquakes. Whatever this is, it's something else entirely.]

Rin, I know it hurts, but we need to go outside.

[Whatever's happening, it's probably safer to be out in the open, rather than inside a tall building.]

[wayofvoice]

[Accompanying the sound of Colin's yelling is the familiar sound of heavy wingbeats and a roar that helps drown out that wretched noise even if only for a moment. Paarthurnax is circling around the Bastion, eyes glowing strangely in a way that those familiar with him would be able to identify as his Aura Whisper in effect.]

[Anyone trying to get to the Barge or the Skyway will find the Dragon landing by them.]

[Need a lift?]

[unwrittenformula]

[The Pokemon wake N up long before the noises start. The dimming and flickering lights preceding the noise come with a change in energy that they pick up on quickly. Their voices become a cacophony in his head, cries of "Something's coming!" "Something is going to happen!" "Something's wrong!" noisy and impossible to sleep through. And if that wasn't enough, Zoura takes it upon herself to start launching herself at the bed repeatedly, yipping nosily and crying out for N to wake.

It doesn't take much with all that going on, and N was groggily sitting up attempting to turn the bed-side light on when that awful sound started.

To him it was only mildly uncomfortable, resonating in his bones in a way that made him feel nauseated, but to the Pokemon it was as if a thousand chalkboards were getting nails dragged down them. Yelps and cries and howls of pain resounded through the Pokehouse, and that's all it takes for N to get to his feet and start rounding them up while calling out to the others in the house to get up.

And then the sinking started...

Luckily it's at that moment that he sees Paar outside, urging him to run out and meet the dragon in a frantic mess while holding a few of the youngest Pokemon in his arms. Their cries had subsided in to whimpers of pain and fright.]

Paarthurnax!

[four_quarts]

[Fuck.

That is Ghaleon's first thought upon being awakened by what sounds far too much like the world ending in a painfully loud and annoying manner. Again.

His second thought as he stumbles still half asleep out the door and vaguely in the direction of the Skyway is that the world really needs to stop getting itself into so much trouble. One of these days he's not going to be there to pick up the pieces and that is a dragon, hello.

Internal monologue derailed, the mage makes his way over to the one creature he can be reasonably certain will be fairly sensible about this whole thing. Sure, he hasn't had the occasion to personally speak to Paarthurnax, but the adult dragons he'd spoken to previously had all seemed more or less fairly sensible people.]

Please tell me that no one has released an unspeakable evil that is destroying the town.

[magisperica]

[ Skyla has never been a morning person, though she doubts that anyone would be when forced to rise at two in the goddamn morning. Any irritation, however, is dispelled by that bassy, creaking, grinding that seems to sink into the pit of her stomach until she feels ill and the lack of light isn't doing anything to help. ]

End of the world's already come and gone. S'a little late for the Rapture, isn't it?

[ it's muttered quietly to herself, mid-yawn, as she makes her way downstairs, and despite the bat she's carrying loosely at her side, she#s still underestimating the urgency of the whole thing --

-- and then the ground starts sinking under her fucking feet and god dammit today is not her morning, is it? ]

Fuck--!

[ instinct makes her blink forward but she only makes it ten or so feet -- not a very good move. So. Looks like it's the old fashioned way.

Sprinting to the Skyway. ]

[croceamors]

[Before she can get far with good old fashioned sprinting, Skyla will find herself very suddenly with a thick black coat being tossed over her head. She should be able to recognize the voice of douchebaggery suddenly by her side.]

Let's not risk anything.

[And that's when she'll find herself being bodily lifted up and flung with no amount of grace through- something. She'll be able to see the wisps of darkness as she goes through the portal if she peeks her head out, but just as suddenly she's out on the Skyway.]

[And hopefully not landing on her face.]

[daughterofursa]

[The sound wakes Zuko almost instantly, and her instincts have her grabbing for the swords she keeps near to her bed. All she knows is something's happening and it isn't good.]

Toph?

[She darts out of her room, barefoot but mostly dressed, gripping the sheath in one hand and ready to draw even if she's starting to realize that won't help right now. She can't identify the sound, but it doesn't take an earthbender to feel the tremor in the ground.]

Toph!

[tophgirl]

[Toph manages, through sheer stubborn overwhelming willpower, to sleep through the start of the grinding noise. She's slept in a lot of noisy places and she's learned to differentiate between obvious threats and just weird shit. The grinding noise is awful, but nobody's approaching, so she snores on.

The snoring stops abruptly as she feels the earth sink. The earth’s not supposed to do that! She leaps out of bed, fighting a wave of dizziness, and stumbles to the door.]

What the badgermole is going on?!

Near Hospital

[notduchess]

... Dammit, the hell now?

[ One extra-pale, groggy looking knight, woken by all sorts of odd noises. Duke holds a thick book in a way that indicates that someone might get whacked with it, if they were the cause of all the noise. ]

... Someone screw with the monument? [ At the moment, 'earthquake' doesn't phase Duke, because shaking ground due to monsters was normal. But the monument was what made the lights ... show up and work, once upon the time, and well. The knight is still half asleep. ]

[freedom_engineer]

[Fortunately, Duke, Colin hasn't forgotten about you. His player's just been doing family things all day. Now that that's over, Colin is running to the hospital to get Duke OUT of the hospital.]

Duke, I hope you're decent!

Pokehouse + Barge

[aprettyred]

[ Pokehouse ]

[ Anna heard the shaking, and Paar's roar, and Colin's voice - and a bit of the panic buzzing in the other bastion residents minds. She fights it down - this is much different from the School Island, she can keep calm! - and gets Mikoto to follow her, rather than ride in her wagon. Why? Because she is raiding her bed of linens.

You're supposed to have an emergency kit for earthquakes, right? ]

[ Bastion ]

[ Anna and her somewhat tubby larvesta are carefully picking their way toward the docks. Although Anna does stop and stare at the distillery a few times. She should get a pot.

Someone care to correct her path? ]

Bastion

[unwrittenformula]

Anna!

[Once N had Paar loaded up with the youngest Pokemon unable to take care of themselves he took to making sure the rest of the house residents were alright... only to find Anna's room empty and the bed stripped.

Worried for her, he bolted from the house with Zoroark at his back and Woobat at his shoulder, looking for her frantically as the Bastion continued to shake and sink.]

[notachickenhawk]

[There's another dragon in the Bastion, landing near the apartments and yelling out to everyone around that can hear over the noise.]

Hey! Give a shout if you need help! I'll carry you!

[That's... Paarthurnax's voice, but not his tone or vocabulary.]

It's Tobias! No questions now, just get on and hang on!

[daughterofursa]

[No, Zuko missed the part where Tobias identified himself amidst the din. She doesn't need help, but she's still going to pause from running in the direction of... no, that's not the Skyway, and call out to him.]

Paarthurnax! Can you see how many have made it to the Skyway?

[He has to be able to get a better view of the chaos than those of them on the ground. She wants to know just how poorly they're doing with this evacuation.]

[windgod]

[Tobais would feel a small pat on his front right dragon leg as Ippo darted past him into the apartment building proper and began to shout and bang on doors as he made his way up the floors. If you weren't awake before...well Ippo wasn't going to let anyone sleep through this.]

HEY, IF ANYONE'S LEFT GET DOWN TO THE GROUND FLOOR, TOBIAS WILL GET YOU TO SAFETY BUT WE ALL HAVE TO MOVE RIGHT NOW!

[bedheadstyle]

[Except that some people can sleep through anything.

That person was not Haruka, but rather his narcoleptic roommate. And unfortunately stress does a number on her condition, which is why the lanky teen is one of the last to leave - he's having to carry Takane on his back.

And this is not an easy endeavor for him.

He stumbles down the stairs with the unconscious girl draped over his shoulders, breathing heavily with a sheen of sweat on his face. This isn't good for him either, but he's forcing himself through the pain for her sake. No way he's leaving her here...]

I-I'm... I'm almost there... !

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[Rob's wearing nothing but a pair of cargo shorts and has his sheathed sword clutched in one hand, hair streaming out behind him as he runs. If anyone's standing around outside looking confused or otherwise not running to or preparing to run to safety, he's taking a detour from his beeline to the entrance to fix that. He slows slightly as he gets close, puts his free hand on their shoulder, turns them to face the Skyway entrance, and moves his hand to their upper back to start propelling them into motion, all without stopping running. He pants the briefest of explanations:]

Bastion's falling. Get to the Skyway.

[dontyoujustwish]

[Next to Anya, Rob almost looks overdressed, because she is in fact completely naked. The time she saved not bothering to put clothes on was evidently spent collecting her belongings. She does have clothes with her, stuffed into a bag along with the important things like her vibrator, stash of condoms, and certain spell components. Priorities, she has them.]

I think everyone has that figured out by now, thanks.

[She's moving quickly, but seems more alert than alarmed. Slowly falling out of the sky doesn't seem that terrifying compared to the myriad apocalypses she's survived.]

Out on the Skyway

[bastionpc]

[So yeah, everyone who made it out of the Bastion can congregate in one specific location. Most of the NPCs made it out there as well, and Zahi has set up a camp of sorts for them to wait at while those still inside try to fix the Bastion.

This 'camp' is mostly patted-down grass that has had any sticks and rocks removed from it, though. It is very clearly meant to be a temporary place.]

Okay, I don't wanna make a fire, since it might attract monsters to us. But we should all stay together here until we hear back from the others.

If worse comes to worse, I know a place we can go. But Nate's smart, I'm bettin' he'll have everything fixed in no time.

[heptagram]

Well, alright.

[Patchouli has taken a seat already. Not attracting monsters seemed like a good idea, her abilities were limited and that probably held true for a lot of other folks as well.]

About where are we going if something should go wrong?

MORE PLOT

[bastionpc]

[Even though Nathaniel gets everything under control pretty quickly, he still waits a bit before leaving the Bastion to retrieve the others. He's pretty sure he's got everything under control, and the Bastion won't be sinking underneath them again for a little bit at least, but he still takes the time to test it, to see just how much energy the Bastion has left.

So, the horrible sounds stop roughly fifteen minutes after they started, but Nathaniel doesn't come out to the Skyway until nearly an hour later.]

So, I've got good news and I've got bad news. Which do you want first?

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Bad news. Good news looks pretty obvious from here.

Hitachiin-Abe Estate - early am during evac

[yinyangfox]

Not even 3am and already the world was falling apart? How right he was. Seimei rolled over in his bed, fluffy fox ears perking and swiveling, flicking back and forth at the noises before he even fully woke up.

"Hnn...Kaoru?" he mumbled, sitting up slowly and rubbing his eyes before the grinding sound started. He was on his feet and yanking his robe closed to tie an instant later. Nothing but his basic sleeping robes but a crisis was a crisis and he wasn't about to just lay there as the world ended again.

"Kaoru wake up! Get Hikaru and Tama-chan!" he called over his shoulder even as he hurried to the stand where he kept his sword, snatching it up in his rush. Large ears turned like radar dishes, the sounds almost painful to hear.

"HIKARU!" he shouted, dropping honorifics in favor of hastening their retreat. "Yata-chan, go make sure Hikaru is up! Go!" he snapped, waving a hand at the bird who lurched off obediently is search of his favorite person. Seimei didn't wonder if Taisan and Alucard were alert - they were both supernatural creatues unlikely to be caught unawares.

[individuates]

At the first little tremors his reaction had been to curl up tightly next to Seimei - they had felt earthquakes before, back home, all he had to do was wait it out until it was over, right?

But then Seimei was gone from his side and with that noise, that couldn't be an earthquake - it was too, too loud. He rolled off the futon when called, taking a moment on his knees to get his bearings, before pushing himself up, grabbing hold of yesterday's shirt to put over his bare shoulders.

"HIKARU!"

There was little time to think about their home now - not their home - all he could manage was to grab the most important things to him and run. He caught Seimei's hand and started down the stairs two at a time, jumping over a frantic Tama-chan circling the bottom and bobbing down to soothe her for a moment. They were running - this was no leisurely walk, he had no doubts about that - and even if she went all-out, Tama-chan was never going to be able to keep up on land. She would have to dig to keep up with them.

"HIKARU!" His voice sounded shrill as he made to start through the house in search of his twin. Please be near, Hikaru. He wanted to just grab a hold of him too, and go.