agogelogs | MAN IS WOLF TO MAN.

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MAN IS WOLF TO MAN.

WHO? Everybody! Including fourth wall visitors.
WHAT? End of the line.
WHEN? The end of an era and dawn of a new one.
ANYTHING ELSE? Please warn for anything besides physical violence and move to a personal journal if it's beyond PG-13.

MONARCHY IN CHAINS;

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING, YOU INGRATES.

READ THE LEMURIA INFOPAGE.

WAKE UP FROM THE WORLD STAGE.

With Fafnir defeated, citizens rise from their beds. No one remembers the incident...unless they have a BCE. While there's a great deal of confusion about certain circumstances—like those who fell asleep in crashed cars—most people move on and go forward with their day. Maybe a bit of déjà vu persists, but that's the extent of it for the average citizen. Even the accidents are chalked up to, more than anything else, a string of freak accidents. Reports are filed and investigations launched, but they're one event of many.

For you? Those memories are yours. Forever. What will you do with them?

WE BUILT THIS CITY ON CHAOS.

If a revolt isn't revolting, it isn't working. There's violence in the streets—everywhere. The chaos isn't confined to just the lower districts, to the horror of the rich. Crowds with molotovs, stolen weapons, anything they can find, rampage through every district. Some seek to find corrupt politicians and bring them to swift, gruesome justice. Some hold the rich ransom for better pay, better access to food. Some just rob everything that isn't nailed down.

A contingent of rioters break into the Pyramid District and kill entire swaths of the royal family.

Be careful you don't get caught on the wrong side of these mobs...or try to help out! Some of the rioters certainly bill the violence as fun, after all.

On top of chaos, something strange happens. Someone hacked the main grid of the city and every government-sanctioned telescreen and soundcaster is playing a bevy of classical and operatic music...with some twists. As fire and blood overtake the city, music swells in the night.

A revolution without dancing isn't a revolution worth having.

BEAUTIFUL AND TERRIBLE AS THE DAWN.

Meanwhile, fuel is added to the fire. Someone by the handle @WARSONG leaks an important file to the wider net. It details how several prominent politicians are funding experimentation on cloning and genetic "improvement" facilities to make people more susceptible to brainwashing, suggestion, and propaganda. The people are outraged and demand an answer.

But no answer comes. Politicians scramble for a scapegoat, so they call for the king, but the king isn't...right. His mind seems scrambled, completely out of bounds, and he's deemed unfit to rule. The next in line is a cousin, but she dies in a riot, and then her recently deceased brother. The list goes on and on, until the crown is placed upon the head of a young girl, traditionally far from the throne. She never would have been a contender for the throne, if not for this chaos. Luckily, she was born five seconds earlier than her twin.

Ueli Ansath Sherel takes the imperial name Ansath Ueli Tal-Xol, first of her name, Queen of Lemuria and Empress of the Tranquil Empire. She promises stability, but few hear her over the roar of the riot. She immediately declares martial law anyway, so at least her voice is felt. The streets are flooded with the military, who rapidly pull back from the Crosslands.

Just, if you're in Lemuria, watch out. You might get shot by something very expensive.

THE CITY OF PEACE.

With the military gone to handle rioting Lemurians, the people of the Crosslands set up camp, hunkering down for when, they think, the military will return. They have some serious weaponry on their side; most notably, two dragons have joined their cause. One is Fafnir, who understands the damage he's done and wants to make amends; the other is Jörmungandr, persuaded by Fafnir to join the cause and that the Crosslands are their better allies, after a narrow scrape with what he believes were Lemurian warriors.

So while the Crosslands aren't exactly peaceful, they're not the riotous mass of neighboring Lemuria. It won't take long to escape to them, should you so choose. This is especially true for the magical and mythological; once tolerated in Lemuria, they are now outright loathed. Survivors flee to the Crosslands, where the hulking masses of two dragons flank the sky. And the Crosslanders know an advantage when they see one, welcoming refugees—myths especially—with the understanding they'll stand and fight when the Lemurian army returns.

If you don't agree, they'll try to chase you out however they can. The magic now on their side is nothing short of stunning.

Among the escaping masses is...Viero. His recent brush with death and failure at political up-jumping has made him denounce his ties with the military of Lemuria. He flees to the Crosslands, where he claims he's reformed and helps the people build up their defenses. He's quickly becoming an influential political entity, with his well-made speeches and genuine military knowledge aiding his base. He rallies people to the cause, and promises to defend the Crosslands from the corruption of Lemurian politics, which he now denounces.

It looks like the future of the Tranquil Empire won't be in time travel or in conquest, but in war with the Crosslands, led by the disgraced Viero. He doesn't have the resources to become a monster, but neither does Lemuria's new empress. Not yet, anyway. Not like the Regency.

And, more importantly, your time here is drawing to a close.

BUT YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN.

Just as the chaos and violence reaches a fever pitch, you receive a ping on your BCE.

@CMDR | @ALL

Soldiers, you've resurrected me. I appreciate the gesture, but my time is at an end. You have destroyed what will one day be the Regency, and so I shall never be born. Every moment you have given me of life is a gift for which I cannot repay. Thank you.

Onto other matters.

You have also stopped the invention of the BCEs. This is good; it means time travel will not come to be abused as it shall be in the future. But it also means your BCEs will soon start malfunctioning. Promises we may have made you about returning home or escaping are beginning to fade. We have limited time. You have limited time.

There are only so many time-jumps we can make. Not everyone can return home. Some will have to stay. It will be easier on our weakening technology to transport people in groups, as well; if you have a friend with a homeworld you would rather return to than your own, I will allow it. While it is against COST policy, soon, COST will never have existed. We will break protocol for now.

Please make your decisions quickly. I do not know how much time we have. As such, please relate all inquiries to @ASHOLE and @STARBOY; I have unfinished business that must be completed before the end of things.

Goodbye, my fellow soldiers.

Any messages sent to Grothia will bounce back.

As for you? It's time to go. But where will you go, and with who? An app opens on your BCE that shows how many slots there are to leave and how many there are to stay. Every extra journey takes resources, but sending two at once takes far fewer and is encouraged.

Whatever you choose, it's a one-way trip.

[OOCly, we're handwaving this, so we're not going to make you calculate it out. There just aren't enough slots for everyone, so it's up to your character to make one last jump or stay to fight in this war between Lemuria and the Crosslands. Basically, choose whatever you think is most IC or poignant or the best ending for your character in this game.]

READ THE LEMURIA INFOPAGE.

NAV. NETWORK LOGS OOC MEMES PLURK

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[@WARSONG will, surprisingly, respond to all inquiries.]
[@ASHOLE will as well, though complain about how busy he is.]
[@STARBOY has better things to do, but maybe he'll make time for you.]

@SGT

I hope that the way things have fallen has reformed a part of your own house and ensured their safety.

And to you, my better half. Hopefully this is where the war truly ends.

Better? Hardly.

And if it isn't, I'm sure you will figure out how to contact me again.

I. Never gonna give you up.

[Getting in was a lot easier than getting out, as people woke up from their induced slumber, but Mamoru did manage: Leaving the building with a vulture Regency mask on, removing it and mingling with the crowd easily enough. It was still hard work, but he knows it's but the final push to get this mission over and done with.

So when he finds a quiet spot as riots break in another part of town, he leans against a grimy wall to know that no one is coming from the back, he rolls his shoulders, allows himself to let out a slow breath that could be, almost, a sigh:

»UN: SWORDARTONLINE
»To: All

Target Neutralized

II. Never gonna let you down.

Shit.

[The curse is uttered as a hiss when Mamoru grimaces at h barely catching himself following the trail of a sweet, fresh scent of cut grass towards a group of mythological beings gathering to leave the city. (How long was he without sleep, again?) These magical beings barely noticed him, and he managed to stay put at a distance to make sure that these, at least, would get out of the town safely.

While he still had trouble placing these beings in the same reality as his own, he did make sure that no scuffles or mugging happened in his presence. At least until he was done.

As they organized, however, Mamoru noticed a familiar outline weaving through the legs and paws of the members of the group. The creature's ears flick in his direction - he's been spotted, and it's probably the wind taking his own scent to it. The creature watches him watching it fixedly.

No. I have no time, and I cannot fool you into a trick, little sightless one. But fret not, there will be time to play. he seems to hear in his own mind as the creature weaves back into the group of people and magical beings.

Mamoru blinks.] Kit--

[No, that couldn't be it.]

III. Never gonna run around and desert you

[The message is uttered by the automated dictation system the BCE had, but Mamoru, somehow, could hear the Commander's voice in his ear.

He could almost picture the restlessness coming from a couple of his cell members at that, the need to reply. Chuckling, he thinks Way to go out with a bang.

So he utters, quietly.] Open. Vacancy numbers. [The system dictates the number. He still had some time. This was only the one ticket, after all.

So he leans back on the chair, closes his eyes, ankles draped across each other. He's not asleep - not really. He's going back to where he was, and he was about to enter a full out war. He grins, running the several things that happened while jumping around from dimension to dimension, from time to time, from place to place. Life, injury, death and rebirth.

This was a good warm up for what was to come.]

IV. WILDCARD OR INBOX - Somehow, it picked up on where he's going next and started to play this as a waiting ring.

[ ... I wish I was gomen this time. Here's a placeholder if your character wants to leave a message or Wildcard any goodbye scenarios!

It's been great playing with everyone, guys! Thank you for the wonderful experience and the opportunity to interact with all of you and feel free to hit me up at mikefoxtrot or jackuzis#7200 at you-know-where. ]

RIOTS

[ COST has carried out their missions, some having gone better than others, and yet still the riots persist. That's the point, Genji realizes. Sometimes there has to be more destruction, more violence, before their goals can be reached. Sometimes peace isn't the answer, if it comes at a greater cost. The information that he and Angela uncovered has been unleashed to the public, and that's a large part of why they're revolting now.

So there's a sense of victory even in the chaos, and yet he realizes that their work is done. Now, the best thing that all of them can do is leave the city. As angered civilians chase down screaming politicians, as buildings burn and shots are fired, Genji does what he can to duck and weave through the mess without drawing any attention to himself.

When he notices a fellow COST member who looks like they might get dragged into the action, he veers into their path and shakes his head. ]

Come, we should leave. This is no longer our fight.

[ A molotov cocktail sails through the air and crashes into the side of a storefront just a few feet away, as if to make his point. ]

CROSSLANDS

[ Somehow, Genji safely makes it out to the Crosslands. It's populated now by strange mythological creatures and dragons, as if he's walked into some kind of storybook. Seeing them all gathered here is surreal, but the fact remains that the wide open fields are a welcome change from the riot-ridden streets of Lemuria.

He finds a perch on the top of a barn, high enough that he can watch the dragons flying overhead and also observe all of the refugees who have escaped the city to hunker down out here. There is more fighting to be had, he knows, but there's been a change in the air. Maybe he's only imagining it, but they have made some difference, haven't they?

If he spots someone he recognizes from COST walking by down below, he'll gesture for them to climb up and join him. If they do, he'll start off the conversation with a question: ]

It doesn't feel real, does it? Did we really succeed?

GOODBYES

[ The text message comes from a commander who should be dead, and Genji has two of those now, doesn't he? He reads it through at least five times, trying to wrap his head around the information there. It's time to go home, but not everyone can make the trip. He can't imagine forcing someone to have to stay here if they don't want to, but maybe people will find ways to travel in groups and save some of the strain on COST's systems.

He can already guess that's what he, Angela, and Jack will do. No doubt they both want to make it back too, and that may be selfish of them, but there's still so much they need to do, now that they've put their time in for COST. Winning this fight at least gives Genji some hope that they can make progress back on Earth, as well.

Wandering the farm lands in a haze, he might come across someone on the dusty roads, or they might find him occupying some vacant barn. Either way, the heaviness is the air is hard to ignore. This will likely be the last time he ever sees this person. ]

What will you do? Where will you go?

[ He wants to find out that much about his fellow members of COST, at the least. Something to remember them by, if possible. ]

WILDCARD

[ Want something else that's not covered here? Here's our last chance, let's do it! Contact me at demonology or by PM if needed. ]

Edited 2018-10-08 19:09 (UTC)

[Chiron knows that he is needed back in the Grail War itself. It isn't for his sake anymore, but for the sake of his Master and to ensure that their opponents do not succeed. It is a decision made of duty, one that pains him to make. There are plenty of people to miss, and relationships that while they may follow him home, will not have the luxury of time as COST allowed for.

When he hears Genji, Chiron turns and smiles. For this departure, he has elected to remain in centaur form. He won't have it when he returns to Romania.]

I must return from where I was originally drawn. Yourself?

[ Genji can't be sure that he'll have time to see everyone he's come to know during his time here before they all have to make their decision and leave, so whenever he comes across someone else he recognizes, he's overwhelmed with relief.

He mirrors Chiron's smile and sets a fist against his own chest, nodding in commiseration. ]

I'll also be trying to return home, if it's possible. Along with Jack and Angela. We're all from the same place, so that should make things a little easier, at least.

[ Of course he wants to go home, but there's no denying that there's something bittersweet to this too. ]

It bothers me that we won't know that our associates have reached their destination safely.

[It is, in his opinion, the ultimate problem with all these farewells. Yes, now is the time to say good bye, but being assured of safe arrival is...it is bothersome. At the moment, Chiron doesn't have too many other words for his feelings on the matter.]

Even if it's clear that no matter where any of us go, we all land on our feet.

[ Genji can understand where Chiron is coming from. They won't have any way to contact each other after they've made their trips back, and the lack of certainty that the friends they've made found their way back without incident is worrisome.

It's a lack of closure that they can't do anything about, unfortunately.

There's a long pause, and then Genji tilts his head up to look directly at Chiron. His shoulders set with confidence. ]

If we've survived everything else COST has thrown at us, this should be the easy part. Do not worry too much, my friend.

[ To say nothing of the time he didn't survive, but he isn't going to dwell on that now. ]

That is the greater truth of it all, isn't it? [Chiron snorts just a little, amused.] Most things will pale in comparison to what has been demanded of us here.

[He snorts, amused, a sound more equine than human. He extends a hand.]

I'll miss you.

[ There is something horse-like to the noise that Chiron makes there, but instead of finding it odd, Genji is endeared by it.

He takes his hand, holding it in his own for a few seconds before he realizes that this is their last chance to talk, and there's no reason not to pull the other man into a tight hug. ]

I will miss you as well, Chiron. Please take care of yourself after you return home.

TEXT AN NPC.

ok i realize he isn't listed but one's gotta try. @SGT; time of departure

eh why not.

figured it'd be easier here than the npc page

mams.

genji shimada | overwatch

Goodbyes, he's gonna miss u bud.

SAME...... lays down

weh.....

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crosslands

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farewells IM SO LATE BUT I MUST

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you're going to kill me

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