[log] The Great Anomaly Round-up [closed]

[jumpthegun]

Characters: OTA (regular characters plus anomalies)
Location: Power Plant
Date: Day 440
Summary: Here! In brief: It's time to capture some anomalies in the Norfinbury power plant!
Warnings: Please add to subject lines.

[The Norfinbury power plant is a large building that is one of the few with reliable electricity. Going inside reveals a warm, metallic interior. Immediately upon entering is a small reception area--there's a door labeled EMPLOYEES ONLY, but you can also go into a door to the right for a small museum-like area intended for young children that explains the basics of thermal energy. Visit the gift shop and get a fun t-shirt!

Entering the employees only area, it gets warmer, though it's far from unpleasant.

Here is where it will happen. There are multiple offices before the hallway opens up into a large, open area with countless shining machines and a sealed off central area. The air in the central area is hotter than the rest of the facility, almost uncomfortable. There's a door requiring a key card to enter the central area, and the door displays a warning: INTENSE HEAT. DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT PROTECTION.

A keycard left by those who have come before sits atop one of the shining machines, ready to be taken and used.

This is the place where the anomalies will be trapped. Where the groups converging on the power plant will attempt to trap the anomalies. Messages have been put up around town, trying to draw them here. It's now or never.

Perhaps you're an anomaly that's already here. Perhaps you're one of those seeking to capture them. Perhaps you're one of the late and unexpected arrivals. In any case, enjoy the free-for-all. There's technically a plan, but mice and men might have something about things that go awry here.]

Comments

Day 441 - Arguing the Fate of the Anomalies

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen gets it. He does. Miller has always been a bastard, and Stephen will go to the grave knowing he was personally responsible for making the bastard's plan possible. He's just...not as convinced as John seems to be that letting it happen is the wrong course of action. He's been saying for weeks, perhaps months, that he only hopes they can shut this whole thing down and prevent any further cycles. Now that they have a way to do that...or to let Miller do it....

He seeks John out in person, unwilling to have this conversation on the network, even more unwilling to have it in front of Miller even if good old Bobert can probably pull up a nanomachine feed and spy on them anyhow.]

John, we need to talk.

[It's John again now rather than Dr. Watson.]

[jumpthegun]

[John's rearranging his pack for something to do with his hands while he thinks and tries to figure out what to actually do about the anomalies. About Robert. They're back out in the gas station near the power plant. It had only been meant to be a brief stop to give everyone an update out of the danger zone, and then that message from the bastard had come through.

When he looks up at Stephen, the weight of almost a year here shows. There's more white and gray than blond in John's hair, the lines on his cheeks are deeper, and there's a definite gauntness about him that haunts everyone here after a few months of constant travel and insufficient food.]

We can't let him win. Not like this.

[thewarningafter]

What he's done is monstrous. We have--you have every right to hate him. But this isn't about whether Robert Miller wins or loses. This is about whether, a hundred or five hundred years from now, someone else is in our shoes.

I wouldn't wish this on anyone else, John. Not even--

Well, alright, I'd wish it on Miller. But not on any of the people who are going to come after us if we don't let this happen.

[jumpthegun]

[He can feel tears of pure frustration gathering at the edges of his vision because he knows Stephen is right, but he doesn't want it to be that way.]

He shouldn't be in charge. He doesn't care about anyone. If these anomalies, if they're people. If we're thinking of them as people, we shouldn't be subjecting them to this, either.

[thewarningafter]

I don't know if they are.

[He sighs; that's the thorniest part of it, to him.]

But if they are...if they are people, they're capable of making that choice for themselves. You saw--the one with Sheena's face--

[They can die, and they know how they can die.]

[jumpthegun]

Some of them aren't even- they're barely there to make a decision, Stephen. You saw the one that looks like Enoch. Like me. There's just too much missing from them.

[And it's horrifying seeing his face on that creature, even a mockery of it.]

[thewarningafter]

I know.

[It was a bad argument, but as much as anything he's trying to convince himself that the one made from him would willingly make this sacrifice...provided it understood.]

They're...programmed, though. They don't want to leave this place. And if they're incomplete, maybe that's...maybe that's a mercy in its own way.

[jumpthegun]

If we could get Miller to program them a different way, maybe. But it's a mercy to let some of these things keep living? You really think that?

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen lets out a deep sigh, eyes sliding shut.]

No. No, it isn't.

But it's a mercy to all the people that will be spared. Hundreds. Thousands, maybe more.

[jumpthegun]

[This isn't right. This isn't right. But it's pragmatic. John turns away from Stephen and slams his fist into the wall. Once, twice, a third time. The only thing that saves him bleeding is the gloves he's put back on.]

Fine. But we'll keep looking for another way. We have to.

[thewarningafter]

[What other way? All that's left to them is to die and leave these hollow copies of themselves behind to live on in a mockery of their attempts to survive.

Stephen grimaces, wondering if he'll be overseeing someone setting a fracture in John's hand.]

We go back to the bunker. Gather in. Try everything.

[It's denial, of course. They won't even make it that far in the time left to them.]

[jumpthegun]

Right. Pack up. Let's get going.

[It's as much to himself as it is to Stephen.

God, his hand hurts. They're ready to head out, though. Time to go.]