(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

[retraced]

[Just gonna ignore that. He deserves it, really.]

T-THERE'S NO WAY YOU'RE GOING BY YOURSELF! YOU'RE ONLY GOING IF I GO WITH YOU!

[nobleminded]

WHO ARE YOU TO-!

[Oh. His older brother. Right. Dammit!]

JUST SUIT YOURSELF IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE LIKE THAT! WE'RE WASTING TIME STANDING HERE!

[He's going to go back to pushing his way to the door, feel free to follow or even get ahead, bro.]

[retraced]

[The last time that Gilbert went chasing Elliot through a burning building, things hadn't exactly ended well. But he doesn't hesitate in running right behind his brother, keeping up easily as they both shove their way into the unfamiliar looking building.]

Where's the staircase?

[nobleminded]

[Having his memory back actually makes it somewhat easier for Elliot to handle the surroundings. True, it's bringing back more than one painful experience, but at least he understands why it's coming to him and doesn't have to worry about blacking out.

Elliot points in the direction of the staircase.]

It's over there! Why did you come in here if you don't even know that much?!

[retraced]

--I would have found it eventually!

[Maybe. Maybe he would have. After some searching. But whatever they're here to rescue someone, right?! He's got this, and he's taking those steps two at a time towards the higher floor.]

[nobleminded]

[And Elliot's keeping pace with him.]

We don't have time for eventually! This place might collapse at any minute!

[He eventually spots the door into his hallway and throws it open, trying to use that opportunity to catch his breath.]

It's room number eight!

[retraced]

[...Okay yeah, that's true. Gilbert can't argue with that at all. The air is getting thicker up here, but luckily Gil is still in pretty good shape. He doesn't need to catch his breath just yet, so he runs on past Elliot towards the door with the number 8 on it. If it's unlocked, he'll open it for them, but if it's locked he's just going to have to stand there like an idiot trying to wrestle with a futuristic locking mechanism that he doesn't really get until Elliot comes to his rescue.]

[nobleminded]

[It probably is locked. His roommates weren't exactly ones to considering someone coming back in to this if they had even been here during the crash.

And Gil's inability to understand it really isn't aiding in Elliot's opinion of his "helping" right now. Pushing you out of the way and unlocking the door now.]

HOW THE HELL WERE YOU GOING TO DO THIS BY YOURSELF WHEN YOU CAN'T EVEN OPEN THE DOOR?!

[Not exactly rhetorical, but he doesn't wait for an answer and he races inside and throws the door to his room open.]

Hey! You in here?!

[retraced]

[He'd get it open! Eventually!!

But since he can't do anything right here, he keeps his mouth shut and follows Elliot in. He seems to know exactly where he's going and who he's looking for, but Gilbert still busies himself with looking around the main area of the apartment, just in case this person he's looking for is out here instead.]

Did you find them? [He calls out when he realizes that no one has answered Elliot's question yet.]

[nobleminded]

Not yet! Arietta?!

[Elliot glances from corner to corner before finally getting on his hands and knees and peering under his mattress for a few seconds.]

I think she's hiding under this bed!

[retraced]

[Under the bed? Is it a child? Ah, that makes everything so much worse.

Gilbert hurries into the room and does the same thing, dropping down to his knees on the other side of the bed to peer underneath.]

Hey - are you okay down there?

[nobleminded]

[Oh Gilbert. It's about to get even more worse than you could have imagined.

Like that scared mewing sound that suddenly emits from under the bed. That's the first omen. And unfortunately, from the sounds of it at least, it's closer to Gil than to Elliot.]

It sounds like she's near you!

1/2

[retraced]

[Well, that sure does sound like a - ]

2/2

[retraced]

[Sure enough, a tiny head appears right in front of Gilbert's face, mewing sadly. But big brother only freezes in terror and begins to quietly hyperventilate.]

C-c-c-c-caa-caaa--?!

[Elliot send help.]

...I can't drop this one fff

[nobleminded]

[Really? The place could fall down around them at any second and you're having a panic attack like a child now?

Elliot quickly crawls over and scoops up the now highly confused kitten. Once she's secure in one arm, he uses the one he free to aim a strike at Gil's shoulders.]

YOU'RE 24, GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF! So what if it's a cat, we need to get out of here!

IT CAN NEVER DIE

[retraced]

[His heart rate starts to slowly calm down as the cat is grabbed and pulled away from him, but he's still frozen in place until Elliot punches him right in the shoulder. It mostly knocks him out of it, but he's still trembling the slightest bit.]

You - you could have warned me first! I t-t-t-thought we were looking for a person!

NO NEVER

[nobleminded]

AND YOU COULD ACT YOUR AGE! Anything that's alive needs to get out of here, so what does it matter?!

[retraced]

IT MATTERS BECAUSE IT'S A CAT-!

[This room is going to burn down and Gilbert will still be crying about cats. Sorry bro.]

[nobleminded]

[Yeah, Elliot's quickly realizing that. Seriously, did he just die yesterday or something? Because you haven't changed AT ALL. Really, why do you have to be his most sane brother?

But he'll be damned if he lets another Nightray die in a burning building, so he grabs Gilbert by his wrist and starts tugging as he tries to get all three of them back out the door.]

IT- IT'S NOT LIKE I WANT TO KEEP HER! BUT SHE FOLLOWED ME ONE DAY AND MY ROOMMATE NAMED HER, SO IT WOULDN'T BE RIGHT TO ABANDON HER IN A COLLAPSING BUILDING!

[The sneaky thing climbed right in his jacket pocket that day, yep...]

[retraced]

[Ah, damn it. It's true. Once you name something it has to be hard to give up.

Except that this is a cat. That's easy to give up!

No - he reminds himself, if it's something that Elliot loves...something that Oz would probably love too if he knew that it existed........

DAMN EVERYTHING.

He stands at arm's length, but still lets himself be dragged.]

She followed you? That sounds like a made up story, doesn't it?

[nobleminded]

[Why does no one else in the Nightray family understand? This is why he can never admit he actually likes them. He'd sound like a Vessalius. Elliot could not have that.

Elliot doesn't really care where he's standing so long as he's escaping. ...And not under a burning beam that's about to fall on him or something. Not that he's looking for any right now but still.]

IT'S TRUE! There are stray cats all over this place! It's no wonder one of the damn things got desperate!

[retraced]

All over this place?!

[This is the first he's seen, but the idea that there could be more - a lot more from the sound of it - nearly makes him freeze up again.]

Why hasn't anyone done something about them?!

[nobleminded]

In the alleyways at the very least, yes!

This place is almost worse off than Sablier, so even if people want to do something, most of them can't! They can barely help themselves!

[retraced]

[Even worse off than Sablier...

The comparison shuts Gilbert up in an instant.]

So it's like that...even here?

[nobleminded]

[Good, now keep walking.]

That's right. This place doesn't have any dukes or anything like that, though, so they're stuck in this if they don't want to join the criminal nation that's in power here!