( april event log )

[hownkai]

Who: Everyone
When: April 14th and on
Where: The Moira + Del Pascia
What: The prison isn't all that contained after all.
Warnings: For the (sort of) undead, possible violence, and nudity. Please label your content!

E V E N T

revive the risk "Big things have small beginnings." Things have been going relatively well for the crew of the Moira thus far despite their current circumstances. With D-E-L’s help, many supplies have already been gathered, and those with the necessary components have begun making much needed repairs. Yet, things aren’t as peaceful on Del Pascia as they might have seemed. The resident facility AI has slowly started growing more and more unresponsive to questions, often answering in rather irritated tones and short, snippy answers. Still, no system glitches appear across the prison except for one minor detail: random doors and hallways suddenly lock and close for no reason and don’t open again for varying amounts of time—ranging from minutes to hours. Does this have anything to do with the unsettling feeling some crew members have experienced since stepping foot onto Del Pascia? Or is there a simple explanation that can be easily chalked up to as an accident? ☄ DECONTAMINATION #2 ( 04.14 - 04.17 ) On the Moira, crew come and go without much hassle. They take a transporter to planets and moons and back again without any fuss... Until today. All crew that try to reboard the Moira coming back from Del Pascia will be denied access, a warning flashing on their MID - Decontamination Required for Entry. It’s a protocol that hasn’t been enacted before, and the MID offers no explanation as to why it is now. The transporter will seal and then be permitted to dock in the Cargo Bay, where the procedure will begin. All crew on the transporter have to dispose of their clothing by placing it inside hazardous waste bags located in a compartment near the front of the craft. After all clothing is stored, a gas-like substance will fill the transporter, breathable yet tasteless, and once it dissipates, crew will be free to go. Other crew members will be waiting in the cargo bay with clothing and blankets, per the captain’s instruction, but no clear explanation will be given for this sudden new protocol aside from “potential health risks”. ☄ D.ON'T E.VER L.EAVE ( 04.18 - 04.23 ) After the decontamination procedures for the Moira go off, the captains issue a ship-wide alert to let the crew know that the ship is picking up on something inside each person that boarded the space station. It is speculated that the crew came in contact with an unknown biological contaminant either during the station’s decontamination procedure or sometime after. At this point, they aren’t aware of what will happen to those that are carrying the contaminant, and the captains ask for anybody with experience to head to the Medbay to begin testing. Crew don’t appear to be in any danger, so they are allowed to continue gathering materials and supplies on board the space station at their discretion. (Every time they come and go, they will be made to go through the procedure described above). Any crew remaining on Del Pascia will find that D-E-L is more vocal than ever before. It is answering questions, as well as trying to convince crew members to abandon the Moira and take up permanent residence aboard the space station. ☄ FEAR ME, LOVE ME, DO AS I SAY ( 04.24 - 04.28 ) Like most unfortunate things, it seems everything happens all at once.The noises you heard, a step falling moments after yours or a rattle coming from the vents, become louder. You can’t place where they are coming from at first. You turn, you follow, but the search yields no results. And then, without any warning, it’s crystal clear as “they” begin to creep and move from within the shadows and ruined sections of Del Pascia: the prisoners and workers said to have been relocated by D-E-L. Their voice is one, regardless of how many gather, and they tell you, “You can be happy here” and “I can make you better” shortly after. Worse than the way they speak in unison is the way they look. Mutated and deformed, their prison uniforms are in tatters and covered in various levels of the same blood that the crew has experienced during their time on Del Pascia while visiting the prison blocks. They don’t attack to kill; they only try to detain, to drag crew members further into the station and are methodical and precise in how they do this as if they’re being controlled by something greater and much smarter than them. To those that fight, D-E-L’s voice will call out, telling the Moiran not to struggle, to stay here and be safe, be better. The AI explains that life there on Del Pascia is easy, peaceful, and nobody will cause you pain. Suffering is a thing of the past and loneliness is something you’ll never know again. The prisoners follow the command of the AI, its voice falling from their lips. D-E-L claims they feel no pain, no hunger. They are united in one purpose and are therefore free of all strife. Wouldn’t it be nice to be free like that? As always, fearing for the safety of the crew (and despite the disrepair of the Moira from events prior), the captains ask for all those capable to assist with extracting those aboard Del Pascia as quickly as possible before D-E-L tries to lock them inside. Running, after all, is better than dying, and it’s certainly something everyone aboard the Moira has gotten quite good at.

Comments

who even knows.

[t65]

[Since learning of their close relation, Luke is more and more able to feel Leia's presence in the Force. Usually, it's subtle and comforting knowledge at the back of his mind, one he barely notices. Today, it's a pinprick, somehow loud and urgent. Leia is here, and Luke knows where.]

[He doesn't question it, just moves forward with a strong sense of purpose. He hears the sound of blaster fire, and quickens his pace. There's a long corridor, and mutants attempting to rush Leia; she's holding her own admirably, but she trips, and two mutants overwhelm her. Luke is turning the corner, running toward her, when it happens. Suddenly, something changes. Luke only feels the urgent need, in that moment, to protect what he has. He won't lose anyone else.]

[Usually, Luke struggles to move anything the size of a human being. But somehow, suddenly, it's easy. With a wave of his hand, one flies across the room, slamming into the wall. It's with more force than Luke's ever moved something before-- the wall is just slightly dented.]

[The other mutant lunges for Leia.] No- Leia!

[imahologram]

[For a sharp, bitter moment, Leia's certain she's going to be dragged away by these hideous creatures. Not doomed, necessarily, but trapped, overwhelmed if only for a moment--no longer rescuer but desperate for rescue.

One mutant is thrown off of her by a power beyond anything she could have managed. She knows it's Luke who's here before she catches sigh of him; somehow, it's his presence that resonates most easily inside her. The fact that he's her brother, maybe, and the fact that he's her friend.]

Luke!

[She can't do much more than shout back at him when the remaining mutant's grip on her is surprisingly firm. Struggling to straighten up, she swerves a leg out to try and kick it off balance.]

Can you--?

[t65]

Stop! [It's wild, panicked anger; Luke reaches out on instinct, and the mutant is ripped of his sister in a sudden lurch. Suddenly, it's struggling in the air, gasping for breath, and Luke's arm remains outstretched, his hand in a closing fist.]

[The first thing he thinks is how do I make it stop. He tightens his fist]

[imahologram]

[It's off of her. It's off. Leia scrambles to her feet, raising her blaster to finish it off--but as soon as she sees it, she freezes. The thing's melted hands are pulling at the empty air around its neck. What's left of its face is twisted into something uglier than usual.

She knows what's happening. Her brother's gesture only proves it.]

Luke, stop it!

[Her voice is brittle and urgent, as close to panicking as Leia likes to think she can get. The sensation rises, ghost-like, in her throat, everything tightening around her.]

[t65]

[Luke drops his hand a split second before Leia calls out; the mutant falls to the ground unconscious. He looks down at his sister with a friendly, open expression.]

Are you alright?

[imahologram]

What are you doing?

[Luke is one of the kindest people Leia's ever met. How can he possibly look so sanguine about suffocating something? She stomps over to him, wanting to put as much distance between herself and the mutants as she can.]

You were choking it!

[t65]

[It doesn't take a Jedi to sense her anger. Luke nearly looks over his shoulder, trying to figure out what could have brought about this sudden rage.]

I was trying to knock it out. I didn't want to kill it, Leia. [Luke doesn't have a lightsaber, but if he did, he likes to think he wouldn't use it.]

[imahologram]

By strangling it.

[But she knows she can't leave it at that. Luke is too good a person to be drawing on darkness to choke things--and he seems so puzzled by her response. It must be some kind of mistake, some kind of misunderstanding.]

Did someone teach you that?

[t65]

Leia, it's fine. I was just knocking it unconscious. [He says it as placidly as possible, more in the spirit of reassurance than wounded accusation.] I thought it would be the quickest way of stopping it.

[No, no one taught him that. In that moment, it just made sense.]

[imahologram]

[Then she'll have to explain herself. Luke doesn't seem to understand, and he should know just what he can do with those abilities of his.

Her voice drops low, her gaze falling away from his.]

That's something Darth Vader does to his enemies. [And Luke knows perfectly well who he counts among that number. Leia starts walking, waving him along with her without glancing his way.] Come on. I don't want to be here when they wake up.

[t65]

[Luke doesn't quite gasp, but it's a close thing. There's a sharp intake of breath, and an expression of worry.]

That... of course it is. [His previously self-assured, nearly cheerful demeanor takes on a tired edge. He suddenly feels very weary.] Yes- let's- let's go.

[He takes a few steps-] Leia? I'm sorry.

[imahologram]

You didn't know.

[Leia can forgive him more easily than nearly anyone else in the galaxy, especially when it's something he never knew to worry about. She looks up at him now, and seeing the way his face has fallen, she reaches over to squeeze his hand.]

I was just...[momentarily thrown back to the Death Star]...surprised.

[t65]

[More than any time before, he wants to tell her. He wants to tell her, just so she can understand. He's starting to feel the terrible way this secret gnaws at him, driving a wedge between everything he wants to do and everything he does. Leia would understand, except... Leia is too close to understand. He wants to spare her the knowledge, the poisonous idea that every step taken may be the first in a path that ends with Vader.]

[But what does he say? Running through this prison, having revealed more of their shared legacy than he'd like... he blurts out-] He was like us, once.

[You know, a person.]

[imahologram]

How do you mean?

[Darth Vader must have been a man at some point. He must have been a child with a mother and father, or an awkward teenager--anything besides a nightmare of metal and circuitry, full of mechanical breath and a barely human voice.

But it's difficult to picture, and Leia doesn't think it makes so much a difference that it's necessary. They need to take him down with the rest of the Empire, no matter what his past might be.]

[t65]

[I've seen it. You have too, he's-]

Ben trained him. [Which explains more for Luke, he suspects, then it does for Leia.] He wasn't always in darkness. He must have... he must have done things like that, too. Slipped up when he wasn't careful and done something terrible.

[imahologram]

[That Obi-Wan trained Darth Vader is a shock, but it doesn't have quite the same resonance for her as it does Luke. It's what Luke goes on to say that has Leia slowing down, looking up at him with the concern she's held onto for a year now.]

But he didn't stop. You did. You can't think--just because you shared a teacher--

[t65]

['Because you told me to, Leia.' But he doesn't say it. It's too mournful, strangely rude in the face of Leia's suffering. If she trusts him, who is he to disagree? He nods.]

Thank you... for trusting me. [It means more than she knows.]

[imahologram]

[She would hate to think that she was the reason he did that--but as long as it remains unvoiced, it's easy to give him a smile.]

You don't have to thank me, Luke. Of course I trust you. [It should be that straightforward, shouldn't it? He's her brother.

Maybe that's what has him so unhappy, though--the fact that Darth Vader trained with Obi-Wan. Maybe that's what he's been carrying since Cloud City, the knowledge that the basis of his training could be suspect. They shared a teacher, and now Luke fears following the same path that Darth Vader did. Is that enough to make him as sad-eyed as he's been? She's not sure.]

[t65]

But- it means a lot. [He tries to say it calmly, as though it's not the foundation of a newly forming mantra. Leia trusts me. I have to be worthy of that trust.] According to Yoda, it's something all Jedi are at risk of. He told me the Dark Side was eaiser, faster...

[He's not sure what he's trying to say, just that his mind is caught at the cave on Dagobah, and all the things it warned and promised.]

[imahologram]

...But it comes at a price.

[They each have their own evils to fight, and Leia thinks those evils must always be the easier choice. It's easier to let a single man subjugate billions than to give those billions the freedom to participate in a fair and just democracy. Easier to fall to the rampant murder and cruelty of Vader than to follow a path that demands something better.

But choosing to resist those simple, corrupt possibilities is what makes them who they are.]

And I know you. You'd never choose the Dark Side of the Force.

[t65]

Yes. You'll know it, if you ever feel it, it's... cold, like death. [That's the only way he can think to describe the cave, the feeling of Vader standing over him, freezing darkness and deathly quiet.]

And you. I know you'd never choose it, either.

[There is, of course, the question of whether a choice is even involved. Increasingly, it's beginning to feel more like slipping and wounding oneself, rather than choosing to jump. But that's too much for right now. He'll puzzle over it later.]

[imahologram]

Cold... [There's something itching at the back of her mind, some unknown she can't seem to place. Shaking her head a little, she gives up on it.

(It's Kylo Ren. Of course it's Kylo Ren.)

She doesn't know enough about the Force to speak with confidence on what she might or might not do. What she's certain of is her trust in her brother. She puts her arms around in a quick, tight embrace, hoping it can be a little reassurance for him.]