(open) crash into me

[whatsupcroc]

Date & Time: Mid-afternoon Sunday, May 5th
Location: The Hold and Housing Complex
Characters: All who wish to be in the vicinity!
Summary: The Initiative asked for the Housing Complex to be evacuated starting early morning on 5/5, in preparation for the expected landing of the spaceship stolen from the United Earth. The landing goes horribly wrong when an undiscovered bomb detonates onboard the ship, causing partial engine failure. The ship proceeds to be crash landed into the Housing Complex; no lives, however, are lost.

Warnings: Spaceship crash landings it's all horrible!
Notes: Respond in action tags or prose, as you please!

The ship breaks cloud-cover as a spot of light in the dreary skies, leaving behind the beauty of sunlight above the broken cloud layer as it continues to descend. With the Initiative having instigated an evacuation of the area ahead of time, just in case, those watching in the light drizzle may find it an interesting sight to behold.

Doubtlessly, the United Earth, from its great distance, may have also found it interesting.

The first sign of something going wrong is an explosion visible from the ground. People who hear it might startle; the ship itself goes from a smooth, controlled flight path to one wobbly and filled with dark, flaming smoke. The whine of its remaining engine is slower to reach the ground, though the ship itself seems to pick up a spiraling speed, still controlled to those familiar with watching things that fly come crashing down to the ground.

The Initiative members on the ground are calling for people to get back and take cover. Inside the main Hold, one man at the transport pads hears his radio blast to life and swallows past his own fear, glancing at the active pad waiting to pull in another unlucky soul.

When the ship hits the Housing Complex, it demolishes the upper levels, though the force with which it hits doesn't seem to be the same as what it should be. Combined telekinetic buffering and excellent piloting from a former Guardian of the Universe Galaxy keeps damage to a catastrophic minimum.

Welcome to the fallout. What will you do from here?

Comments

[velveteened]

Eleven people, at least.

( eleven in the ship if he remembers the list caesar had left him properly, and hopefully no one in the building with the evacuation.

dead people don't stay dead here, but that's not the point. )

[retraced]

In a building that big? You're sure?

[He looks back up at it.]

[velveteened]

In - ( a slight falter as he realizes the mistake, and shakes his head ) - there was an evacuation earlier, just in case something like this might happen. But in what crashed into the building, there should've been eleven people.

[retraced]

Evacuation for what? How...

[And he asks this in a way that it sounds like he's afraid for the answer.]

How long have you been here?

[velveteened]

( this is all wrong.

being so - serious, visibly shaken, it really is; for an occasion like finally being reunited with gil, he would've wanted things to be very, very different. an honest answer to that question would be given, probably, but made light of somehow in ways he's not sure how to muster now. it'd be a stupid thing to lie about because it would only last as long as a conversation with break or elliot or even lacie.

that doesn't mean it isn't tempting. )

...months.

( nor that it doesn't win out, a little. )

[retraced]

Huh?!

[He nearly stumbles to hear it, but aside from a small slip on the wet ground, he continues hurrying towards the smoke. But his face pales at the same time, and his breathing strains. It isn't the first time that he's been misplaced through time, but to know that Oz was here without him while he'd been sure he'd been at his side ever since the coming of age ceremony...

It's a dizzying type of pain.]

But we were just -

[velveteened]

Time is strange here, ( he admits.

it is reminiscent of the abyss, with leo from the future and lacie from the distant past, all of them here - as gilbert's just confirmed - without anyone knowing. zwei had said you can never return to your own time and he believes it but that - maybe that remains to be seen, here.

and on that note, he looks at gilbert. )

What were we just doing?

[retraced]

We were in Reveil with that stupid rabbit. Leo and Vincent suddenly appeared in front of us, and...

[He shakes his head and winces a tiny bit, like it hurts to remember even though it had only been a moment ago to him.]

[velveteened]

...Leo tried to throw me into the Abyss.

( about the same, then - or so he hopes, lest he just dropped a big surprise on gil. )

It's the same for me.

[retraced]

Then - he succeeded?

[Is that how they got here? Something feels off about it, but it would be a reason for how they got to this strange place to begin with.]

[velveteened]

( ...GILBERT. shoots him a look and says, flatly: )

Of course not. This was caused by someone else. ( not that he can really blame him for the question. ) ...though in principle, it's not that different.

[retraced]

[Oz he's doing his best here ;~;

But he takes the chance to look away from Oz towards the ruined city. It's unlike anything in Reveil, or even Sablier. The slums left behind by the destroyed corpse of the city still looked far different than the buildings here.]

And...how do we get home?

[velveteened]

( he's thought the same, himself; it's tempted to look at the ghost of the city this once was and equate it to sablier, or its size and business to reveil, but in the end it's far too alien to be home.

to gilbert's question, he chuckles, but it's fairly mirthless. )

If I had an answer for that...

( or at least an answer beyond "the initiative does it" )

[retraced]

[Then he wouldn't still be here, of course. Gilbert frowns and bites down on his lip. If there's a way in then there's a way out, even through the Abyss. He still has Raven; if they can find even a small piece of the Abyss in this place, he can try to create a portal for them. Though, even then, there's no assurance that they'll end up in the same place that they came from.

But he drops the topic as they get a little closer to the street, which is being blocked off quickly by officials.]

[velveteened]

( smoking ruins are hardly encouraging, but thankfully the results of the explosion and subsequent crash are good - everyone alive and accounted for, hardly hurt at all. the building and ship can be repaired, and honestly, those aren't things he thinks to worry about until after the safety of the people are confirmed. it's still raining, of course, but there's something much less miserable about it; here to wash away the mess from today, is something like what alice might say.

there is still a matter to be dealt with, something horribly worrying and confusing (or: someone), but evening finds oz much calmer - visibly for sure - than he'd been earlier, and gil's presence most definitely has something to do with that.

he huffs out a breath, amused, at the continued state of the housing building. )

Normally, we're supposed to stay there, but with things like this we'll have to find somewhere else to stay for now.

[retraced]

[By the time the situation had started to make sense and time paradoxing had calmed back down, Gilbert has all the answers as to what this world is and how he got here, but he's still thoroughly spooked. Elliot is here, as well as Leo and Break. There's talk of Baskervilles and in the air Gilbert can still somehow sense a familiar influence over the Abyss that he'd mistaken for just Raven before. His mind is traveling a thousand miles a second, so he ignores it by focusing on Oz instead. Tonight, when Oz is sleeping, he'll stay up and watch over him and let his thoughts work themselves out then.]

Where else is there? [Glancing up towards the sky.] It still hasn't stopped raining...

[velveteened]

It never does.

( dismissively. it doesn't occur to him that he's used to it, or getting there, enough that a sunny day would feel out of place. )

We might be able to find a place in the city somewhere... ( there are empty buildings, friendly exiles, spaces in transport-owned buildings. ) I've heard people talk about the underground, too.

( he'd heard before of previous bombings on the city and the inhabitants taking refuge during that, but he hadn't really known about there being extensive underground passages until today. )

[retraced]

Which would be safer?

[That's the main thing, in his opinion. Safety can always come before comfort.]

[velveteened]

( it's a funny question because he wouldn't have thought to consider it on his own. not even now, with the increase of baskervilles; safety isn't the precise thing at the forefront of his mind here, anymore. )

Maybe the underground.

( he's not sure how many people would opt to go down there given other options, and in the event of something happening - if what he met of glen was a trick or a lie or if, horribly, there are more still hiding - it'd be easier to keep other people out of it. he's still a long way from forgetting all the damage jabberwock caused to the city when leo wasn't even trying. the one casualty was awful but also lucky, that that was it. )

And! There'll be plenty of room for Li Jun to walk around.

( from the wagon, the cat meows. )

[retraced]

[He's about to suggest that they find Break and Elliot as well (and avoid talking about Leo for now) but as soon as that cat decides to voice its presence again, he yelps and stumbles back into a rain puddle.]

I forgot it was there--!!

[velveteened]

( the most cheerful laugh! oh gil, he missed you so much. )

Don't worry, maybe Lenalee can take care of him for a little while. ( don't call your master's pet an it!!! ) She must've been worried, anyway.

( an uncharacteristic display of mercy?? maybe. it occurs to him as soon as he says it that gil has no idea who lenalee is, nor the first thing about her, though since he isn't a hallucination, that'll change soon enough.

(though there's a part of him that remembers how people here can come and go just like that, here one moment and the next gone, just like ringo or ikki or kougyoku or loki. "forever" starts to feel tenuous here, thin.)

li jun, thankfully, has had quite enough excitement for the day, and so while he eyes gil beadily he doesn't move to leap. )

...I'll introduce you to her when I see her.

[retraced]

[A CAT IS A CAT Oz don't give it an identity, Gilbert can't deal with any of this...

But the cat still doesn't seem to be ready to jump out at them. Thank goodness. Ada just had those other cats trained, man.]

We'll worry about that later. We should find something for you to eat, too...

[Gilbert hasn't eaten since before that crepe. :( The crepe that never was.]

[velveteened]

( that poor crepe! left abandoned on the ground...and whose fault is that? (oz's)

and maybe he remembers that, because he just nods to all that - doubtful that he'd be able to convince gil to eat before doing so himself. despite that, he adds: )

I'm alright.

( or maybe not despite, since he's not talking about food, and pitches his tone for reassuring before going on. )

There's a bakery not far away that might still be open!

( sweets *A* they even make scones. )

[retraced]

[A bakery, you say? Gilbert likes bakeries. Bakeries have bread and other assorted baked goods that he can appreciate. Even though he's not sure about the quality of said bakery against the backdrop of this ridiculous world, he's willing to give it a try.]

Where is it?

[But right after he asks, he realizes something else important.]

Eh...would they take our money here...?

[velveteened]

( of course gil didn't stop to get any of that. well, there'll be time for that later, when it's not delaying a sweets expedition. for now - )

I can pay for it.

( and he actually can! so early on in the month, he hasn't had much chance to squander spend his marques much, yet. )

The Initiative gives money to all of us for staying here.