(no subject)

Who: Everyone
When: July 1 and onward. See this post for info.
Where: Kauto + Chioni + Ingress Complex
Warnings: Potential violence. Please label warn-worthy content in your subject headers.

There's a burst of light in the sky when the Ingress breaks, a final flare followed by a shuddering that only those in the facility can feel. A flurry of panicked activity in the complex follows, ushering new arrivals to where they need to go in a hurry, with little time to give them the needed information, much less answer questions. The lights remain on, but dimmer now, life functions still operating but little else. On Kauto and Chioni below, the sky fades into an early twilight, followed by night, and day does not come again.

nerds save the world

Before the end of the day, all TABs receive an emergency broadcast notification outlining the situation. The speaker, a lead Savriite Ingress technician, does not invite panic but nor does he mince words. The Ingress is broken; their best efforts have failed to restore it. The time has come to turn to anyone who can help: scientists, engineers, those who have worked with advanced technology on any world. Formal qualifications don't matter when it could be the end of everything.

"Help us. Before it is too late."

Those who come will have the run of the complex and full access to the Ingress, as well as whatever tools are available and as much coffee as they can drink. People are encouraged to work in groups and share ideas, and a small number of young and nervous technical assistants will be on hand.

the land below

As Thisavrou is denied light and warmth, the weather becomes brisk and descends into bitter cold. Chioni is evacuated due to the effects on the already-harsh weather cycles there, although a skeleton crew of scientists remain behind. On Kauto, the arboreal Region Three and pastoral Region Two suffer the most from the temperatures and the snow that eventually begins to fall. Many crops are frozen over, and refugee citizens are driven from their homes to the Regions One and Five, where stored energy will keep dwellings warm. Save for those who choose to leave the underwater facilities, Region Four remains largely unchanged, but there are unverified accounts of strange aquatic animal behavior near the surface.

Overcrowding, limited supplies and a pervasive fear presents the opportunity for both heroism and foul deeds. Many come together to share resources, supplies and fellowship in what could be the end of worlds, while others take what they can from the unwilling or exploit the desperate. Sentient evacuees are followed by fauna from Region Three and unsettled lands beyond, in search of warmth or food or merely confused by the change in habitat. Some are unthreatening herbivores, while tanglesnakes and clownbees are more troublesome. Others are poisonous hunters, while still others are small, but dangerous when faced as a pack.

Just when all seems lost, light returns to the sky. The Ingress begins to function once more.

the coming days

As the temperatures rise, many demand answers, but most turn to the rebuilding of their lives first. Damage has been done that isn't so easily fixed, and even in the least-affected areas, remnants of the crisis show in the lack of fresh food, in the increased signs of criminal activity. Those who can help others through their own efforts of by organizing assistance are needed, but those with impure intentions are more likely to go unnoticed.

Eavesdropping on the streets may reveal a desire for vengeance. "Those intruders from last week. They're responsible for this, aren't they? What's being done?" But don't listen too closely, or a suspicious eye may be turned on you. "Aren't you one of the refugees from the Midway Hub? You should return to where you came from! All the trouble began when your people showed up!"

Life goes on. But life does not go on unchanged.

[quick ooc note: the Region 4 search & retrieval mission/RNG fight will be posted in a separate log.]

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[well, finally, some good news. now he's just got to find some place to store his future armory. john was usually content to have one or two weapons on him at most, but here? he knew getting a few more guns couldn't hurt his chances. never mind the fact that they were on an alien planet. what if he ran into something that required something a little bigger than a .9mm bullet?

as far as keeping them hush-hush, though, he'd have to plan a little more on that. for now, his two pistols and his knife would have to be enough to get him by.]

Good to know. If you figure out your problem, give me a heads up.

[and then he's right back to lavishing the dogs with some more attention. the difference in the dogs' temperaments was painfully obvious. mama was obviously the kind of dog would prefer to be in a lap, getting dotted on, while joy was cautious and reserved, waiting for that tale-tell sign of safety. john gives mama another good scratch to her head and joy a firm pet along the back of her neck before he finally leaves them be.

with kaz already preparing something in the kitchen, john takes his new coat off and throws it over the nearest flat surface before finding a place to sit. it's still a little crazy to think he's sitting in a restaurant owned by kazuhira miller.]

[It's pretty quaint, too. That sixties sort of style that you'd expect to see teenagers sharing milkshakes at. In reality, he picked something as close to the first place he visited with his father as he could. Always a little hung up on rebuilding the good things from his past. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.]

[He doesn't even mess with noodles. It's basically ramen broth and pork and eggs and seaweed and sprouts and for god knows why, despite knowing the whole thing is going to disappear without a thought, he garnishes it with chopped green onions.]

[So Snake has a huge bowl delivered to sit in front of him with a large spoon.] Don't eat it too fast. It's hot. It should keep you going, too. Lots of protein and iron. [And he goes over to a distant wall of his diner, crouches down under the booth there, plugs something in, and a door-sized panel opens up.] Give me another moment. [He disappears inside, comes back out with a gun that he places on the table in front of John and a couple of clips. And then a med kit from under his arm.]

Just try not to shoot any people. Not while you're in a Savrii run area, anyway.

[As if he were some sort of weapons and ammo upgrade and health recharging station. In any case, after delivering his starting loadout he finally takes his seat as his strange little incomprehensible secret hatch closes.]

[would you also like to rub his shoulders while you're at it, kaz? there's about a whole five seconds between kaz putting down his lovingly crafted bowl of broth and john digging into it. despite not being in polite company for the last six years, john manages not to wolf the whole bowl down in one go.

he's actually too distracted by miller disappearing into some kind of... secret room in his restaurant? why the restaurant of all places to have your metaphorical panic room? unfortunately, the old soldier's not interested enough to ask and if he knows his former second, and he does, then he knows that kaz has a reason. something john might not pick up on immediately, but then, kaz has always been a little more convoluted than him.

~~of course when you're as think as an oak tree, that really doesn't mean anything~~

it comes as something of an unexpected surprise when the blonde brings back a weapon and a medkit. did kaz think john wouldn't always have weapons on him? although big boss hadn't been expecting to be spirited away, he barely ever slept without a gun in his hand.]

No promises. [remember that one time he tranq darted someone on his first day.] Gotta say, I'm a little confused why you're treating me so well.

[Kaz shrugs mouth tensing in a quick frown.]

You know... when you died here... I got mad for a bit. Not at the twins. They couldn't help what happened. I just had to sit there and be angry that it was no one's fault. Paz was here... I had to tell her- I had to tell her -that sometimes things just happened. [And he snorts at how inexplicable that sounds. He'd told her to calm her, to keep her from going after the twins and to keep Ocelot from exacting his own revenge.]

And then I actually cried. I had to tell her that. Broke down in front of her.

[And Paz had said for him not to, because there's only one person Snake would ever cry for and it wasn't Kaz.]

Actually really glad to see you're not dead, I guess. I'm giving you a kickstart on surviving this time.

[there was a lot going on with this conversation very suddenly. kaz crying over him, paz being around for his death, the twins apparently having some part in this? probably the logical topic to go after would be the apparent culprits, although he couldn't imagine how, of his death.

instead, there was a long minute or two where big boss was honestly baffled that anyone could ever cry over him. he wasn't so delusional that he believed himself just another foot soldier, but, at the same time, there was always an inevitability of him being killed at any moment. back home, the only one who would have truly mourned him would be ocelot. even he wasn't blind to that fact. when he had a heart attack on the moira, john thought they all would've moved on after the initial shock.

after all, death wasn't exactly permanent there. or so he had heard.

but he doesn't say any of that. he doesn't ask why. there's just the smallest ball of regret, coiling in his gut, that he had allowed any of them to get that close.]

Wait, Kaz, what do David and Eli have to do with that? I had a heart attack.

[so unless they somehow arranged for it to happen, he couldn't understand miller's logic.]

That's the thing. They didn't directly have a part in it. They were infected with a virus, I'm not clear on the details, meant to specifically attack their DNA. What no one realized in a stroke of genuine... [he makes a motion from his head outward, just staring off towards the middle distance] ...obliviousness, is that you had that same DNA. It was made after you were dead, after all. No one thought about it. Eli and David had been forced to live with the virus while on the ship. That's even how Eli died back home. A heart attack caused by the virus. That's what it does. And David had been working on borrowed time. A death sentence.

Apparently, you came in direct contact with one of them- [possibly when certain children were interrogated, though he does not know to point that out] -and so. Heart attack. Even though I saw your vitals going, there would have been nothing I could do.

They're cured now. It happened after you died. But it would be worth a trip to a doctor to make sure you're in the clear. Paz thought- well... she thought it was Cipher, doing what it does best. Maybe it was. I know FOXHOUND was involved somehow. [Kids that are around his age. But he remembers Eli being a punk all too well, even familiar with him as he is now.] They sure as hell didn't want to be affected by it.

It shouldn't be a problem again since they're cured but I want you to know it exists. You so much as get a cough, you find a doctor. There are better resources here than what was on the Moira.

[someone out to kill anything and anyone connected to big boss wasn't that crazy to fathom, but a virus made to specifically target their DNA? who could've made it? if it had been the work of zero, the only one who should've been killed was eli. he had always been zero's little mistake, let loose into the world with no care if he survived or not. after all, david had been zero's ace in the hole from the beginning. right?

but this explains why the twins had asked john for a sample of his dna. something about their genetic coding rigged to, metaphorically, explode. it must have worked then, whatever that doctor had ended up doing, just a little too late.

none of that matters, though, the moment john hears he probably caught it through exposure. he freezes, noticeably, as his mind immediately goes for that impromptu interrogation session he held. of course, it's possible he could've caught it from eli, they had technically worked together on the moira. the truth is, though, they barely ever saw each other, always happy to be working elsewhere.]

...Maybe it's time I talk to David.

[cause, you know, this is technically twice that he's killed big boss. never mind the whole FOXHOUND involvement.]

Don't do anything extreme. Just talk. He's got a good head on his shoulders. But I think I told you about that.

[Kaz purses up his lips as he considers his next words, a wrinkly forming between his eyes and under the bridge of his glasses. He's aged well, but there's still this worry line he's worked on through considerable effort in his nine years, a crease between his brows that forms with that too frequent expression.]

He cared a lot about you. Not as a father, but you were more important than a father to him. Fighting you was how you felt when you fought the Boss. Not just that, he had to kill you twice. And afterwards? FOXHOUND tried to poison him and anyone to do with you out of existence in more ways than one. They already made him kill you, and that wasn't enough.

So just talk to him. Don't interrogate him, don't strongarm him. You made him the soldier he is. I taught him a few tricks you don't know and some perseverance. But you taught him how to believe in something with every last fiber in him.

And I guess to put out cigarettes on his pants leg.

[Because all of you are heathens.]

[But the words are surprisingly gentle, more the tone he'd used on him in Costa Rica even if they had the weight of the years that had past since in his voice.] He cares about you that much. He'll want to help you.

[Even if you betrayed him the way the Boss 'betrayed' you.]

Don't. [the words are spoken crisply, with a sharp edge of anger in the tone. while kaz had give him a few headaches over the course of their complicated relationship, he had never been outright angry at the man. the moment, though, the blond tries to compare his situation with the boss to snake's situation with him, it's suddenly the worst thing he's ever said to john.

how could kaz even think the two were remotely the same? maybe he had never heard how david talked about john, the conviction in his voice when he said big boss needed to be stopped. there was no remorse there, in that room, with david tied to a chair and staring down john. god, his clone had even said john had wanted it by the end.

at that point, john's anger is once again twisted in on himself, as it had been for the last two decades. don't compare it. don't compare it.

has he just been a pathetic facsimile of the boss this entire time? was he so entranced with her ghost that he was inevitably walking in her footsteps? he couldn't end up this way. he couldn't become the boss begging for death.

there's a sudden flurry of moment from him, grabbing his coat and standing up. he pulls the thing on he's heading for the door. he needs to breathe.]

I've gotta... [and then john is gone.]

[Kaz hears the snap in his voice and he doesn't say more. Though the words are important to know, because it's true- he doesn't want Big Boss to die. Either of them. And more than that, he doesn't want them to want to die. He can see the anger, and there's a bit of regret.]

[He tells himself again that it's something he needs to know.]

[Then that anger seems to turn on himself. He'd been so proud to abandon her weight and take on his new role, but he doesn't seem all that proud of it right then. Or maybe that's Kaz reading too much into it. And like that, John departs. As easily as a skull, a puff of smoke and he's out the door.]

[But Kas sits for a moment and taps his fingers on the table. Looks around. Then says at thin air, tired and with a sort of disappointed acceptance-] Forgot your medkit. [-and he pulls the items he'd left for him back towards him.]

[Hopefully, he'll talk to David. All the better to help him live for more reasons than one.]

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