OPEN - JINX FATHERS DAY FESTIVITIES

[whimsikills]

Who: JINX whimsikills & VARIOUS
What: Jinx destroys half of Central City
When: June 18th
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: Fatalities, terrorism, daddy issues on steroids.

---

Happy Father's Day !

---

There’s few things Jinx does that are subtle. Her silence, as long and prolonged as its been, should have been warning enough. Few people in Central City know her as she’s known at home, nestled into the frigid, humid bosom of the Undercity. But the know her enough, perhaps, to know that’s a menace; that she’s unstable; that she lost her father months ago, and then went utterly quiet.

Grief is a funny thing, of course. She’s already mourned Silco once. This time she finds her angry, working through the hurt and the fury with a calculated focus. Silco loved the ocean: he loved the deep depths and the horrors that lay beneath. He liked sharks and the mutated monsters that lay in the belly of the Undercity’s polluted shores. She built him a viewing place, here in Central City. A deep little place in the underground of the converted factory, where he could watch the murky depths of the pier’s sparse aquatic life.

He liked the aquarium. He liked the museum, too, in his own way. Wealth, history, power, all of it in one place to be admired. She’s stolen from them both since he left her. Sharks, crocodiles, paintings, bones, things that Silco would have loved.

She’s replaced them of course. Impressive replicas, some indistinguishable from their real counterparts. Some are clearly fakes; funny animatronics that she’s painted. She’s replaced bones with clever upgrades, left funny graffiti in the place of priceless art.

It’s been months and months of work, leading up to this very day, this very moment: you see, Silco hasn’t come back, and so, well, everything he loved has to go. It’s about moving on! It’s about closure.

It’s about sharing the grief.

They are all explosives, designed to go off at noon on fathers day. Jinx will take full responsibility, of course, but you'll have to catch her.

---

MORNING - 9AM - 12PM

---

The Aquarium, Museum and various other odd points in the city open for business. It’s Fathers Day, which means plenty of foot traffic. Children, families, regular goers - Jinx has been anticipating a full house by noon. Maximum damage is key here.

This will require a huge rescue effort from the Guardian Alliance and the Society. Jinx is unaligned, and this will likely have the IC knock-on effect of making unaligned folks' lives much, much harder.

The primary goal will be to get survivors to hospitals across both locations. This may be difficult with the Downburst stuff happening at the same time.

---

AFTERNOON 12PM - ONWARDS

---

By noon, things start to go boom. It starts small: little trashcan explosions meant to scare. Fireworks, mostly, bangs! The museum is next, Jinx’s replacement bones are all set on a timer and begin a chain reaction of large explosions starting at 12:12pm, until most of the building is reduced to rubble.

The aquarium is next, her fake fish and aquatic life now clearly not real. Each has little neon messages sprayed on their flanks as the paint sheds. HAPPY FATHERS day rolls out of the crocodiles and other mammals she’s replaced. The explosions here start thirty minutes after the museum in another chain reaction.

---

AFTERMATH & CAPTURE

---

The casualties are large, and the fatalities potentially larger. Jinx herself is nowhere to be found at either site. She is, for those who begin to look for her and bring her to justice, easily found at the refurbished factory she and Silco called home.

She’s rigged this one to blow too: one final farewell to dear old dad.

After, she’ll be off her mark, and won’t go down easily. (At least, until she’s used up all her ammo.)

Jinx will be captured by June 19th-20th and will go straight to jail.

Comments

loki odinson | mcu | ota

[dothelokimotion]

( cw: descriptions of injury )

[ he had only intended to stop for a moment. since they were passing through central after all and he wasn't one to be 100% focused on the mission at hand.

which has backfired on him spectacularly. loki had shields for bullets and projectiles, but explosions randomly being set off in the museum was not something he considered preparing for and rubble affects all things, even gods. he groans under the weight, his breath coming out sharp and punctured. with a bit of magical strength, he manages to blast some of the rocks on top of him but his leg is still trapped, making him gasp in pain. he lies back for a moment, trying to collect himself. blood trickles down from a cut on his forehead. ]

This is . . . problematic.

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth is deep in the exciting world of real estate records when the cuff on his ear suddenly hisses, and he snaps to alertness. Given the state of the world, it could be any number of things: the Society having caught them breaking quarantine, those new guards who've appeared, someone who doesn't like their investigation into the Fixer...

What he did not have on his list was someone bombing the museum Loki stopped in. One of the Fixer's missions? The cause isn't the priority. He pushes his way into the rubble, raising his voice.]

Loki?

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki blinks weakly. he tries to sit up but his crushed leg gives way and he lets out an explosive hiss before forcing himself to stay still. he coughs, rubbing his throat. ]

I'm here.

[unkindled_madness]

[He follows the sound of Loki's voice, hurrying through and ignoring any other victims. When he finds Loki, he freezes for an instant.

He shouldn't freeze, he's seen far worse, but he's never cared the way he does with Loki.

But it's only for an instant. He makes his way to Loki's side, trying to assess him.]

Your leg- is that the worst of it?

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki coughs once more. his throat hurts. why? was it all the smoke and debris? or an old wound acting up? it's been a long time since he's been hurt so badly. ]

I think so. It's hard to tell.

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth briefly lays a hand on Loki's chest. It's meant to be comforting, he thinks.]

Can you pull it free if I lift this?

[dothelokimotion]

[ he swallows tightly, wiping some of the blood from his face. his pulse is erratic, despite his even tone. ]

I — I believe so.

[unkindled_madness]

[He'll get Loki free, and then- he'll be fine. He's a god, after all.

He moves to the piece of rubble trapping Loki's leg. He thinks he can lift it with his strength. He has magic, if not, though he isn't sure of the best spell... No, try lifting it first. Then deliberate.]

On three, then.

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki gives a jerky nods, his breath a stutter. ]

Let's be quick.

[unkindled_madness]

One, two, three.

[And he hauls the piece of rubble up.]

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki quickly yanks his leg out but the movement shifts his balance, causing him to fall on his side and he can't quite stop the cry of pain that slips out. ]

Donnie / Closed

[purplexing]

In hindsight maybe throwing himself headfirst into crowded, busy situations isn't the way to go in reacclimating himself to such surroundings. On the one hand, it kind of works in some ways, and being out around other people makes it harder to be singled out. When Donnie's not feeling anxious he's just a bit annoyed, which is an improvement in his book. He's stopped jumping at every accidental bump or near-collision with wild children. At some point he's finally been able to kind of relax even as he has his headphones bumping some K-pop tune or another while he wanders the exhibit halls.

He largely still prefers a museum after-hours, empty and quiet being a sharp contrast to an afternoon full of teeming halls. But at least the contents are different, and there's a lot to see. Paleontology isn't particularly a top area of interest to him but it's still fascinating to look at the old ancient bones of creatures that might have been distant relatives. Although bones shouldn't be quite that discolored...

"Wha..?" He tunes back into the world around him, hears a few people pointing out similar anomalies amongst the surrounding exhibits. Such a random neon palette had no place on such exhibits and he feels mildly affronted by this gross display.

Donnie pulls his goggles down from beneath his hood, but what's revealed through his readouts isn't anything that he's been prepared for. These garishly flaking bones are literally ticking timebombs, and his horror only grows as he realizes that they are everywhere.

"...oh no-"

---

His ears are still ringing when the world around fights to come back into focus, still fuzzy black around the edges, still wavering like some greedy thing ready to pounce and overtake him the moment he lets his guard down. Dust and smoke clogs the air, and it hurts to breathe, even more so to cough. He can't move, and at the same time he's not entirely sure he wants to. Something's on him, pinning him, and if he were more aware of things he'd be amazed that he hadn't been crushed.

He should do...something. It's so hard to think. Maybe...maybe it won't hurt to just...close his eyes for a sec...

[faceguy]

Leo had known Donnie was here at the museum - he’d said he was coming, and the location tracker on Leo’s phone has been showing that he’s here. He’d just been hoping that Donnie wasn’t caught in the actual blast - that any moment now he’d see him zipping around over the rubble with his battle shell, or using his tech to analyze a wall cave in, or the telltale flash of purple from his ninpo.

Leo hasn’t seen any of that in the time he’s been here, helping sift through the rubble, and the little pinging dot that signifies his brother hasn’t moved.

He tries not to panic. Maybe Donnie is just busy helping. It doesn’t necessarily mean… it can’t mean anything worse.

Just in case, he sends a text to Huvrye and Accelerator, the only two people he can think of immediately to get help from. It’s a group message, because he doesn’t have the time or bandwidth for multiple threads.

D went to the museum
havent found him yet

That’s all before he’s moving again, closer to Donnie’s ping, helping as he goes but starting to call out.

“Donnie!? Donnie, where are you!?”

[levelshift]

Accelerator had received a Society text at about the same time as Leo's, so both of those in combination means he isn't about to spend the afternoon napping. There are likely other people here - heroes, namely - who are better suited to helping in a potential terrorist situation, but if one of two people he actually gives a shit about here is caught in it and the Society is telling him to get off his ass, he doesn't really have a choice.

He doesn't bother responding to Leo's texts, he just heads on out, mentally calculating the time it takes for him to get from his apartment to the museum via air. Time limits suck.

Hovering over the rubble, he touches down when he spots Leo. Despite the Society, Donnie is his first priority.

"Hey," he says, hands in his jeans pockets, sounding as casual as ever as he looks around at the situation. This isn't a scene that bothers him at all, being unfortunately used to violence and destruction, though close inspection will reveal that he's more tense than normal. A building collapse he can handle, but a building collapse involving someone he likes is a new and uncomfortable experience and requires extra effort at his poker face.

[purplexing]

Very few supporting walls remained standing, making it difficult to identify the damage for what it once was. Jinx had been very thorough in her setup and her payloads for the most part had delivered.

Unfortunately Leo's calls receive no response, and Donnie's locator remains as stationary as ever, not far from the base of a broken pillar. The rubble in this area is thankfully not as deep but it's still comprised of chunks of broken masonry and concrete, fossils and shattered glass.

[faceguy]

Leo, on the flip side, is not casual at all. He’s relatively calm, given the amount of destruction and pain and blood surrounding them, but his normal jokester persona is dropped. It’s not something he can keep up in the face of this level of suffering.

It’s not something he can keep up when one of his family members is missing.

Accelerator just gets a quick nod in greeting, Leo immediately launching into his sit-rep. “I’ve been helping with the rescue efforts while I look for him. He’s got tracking set up,” Leo shows Accelerator his phone screen, “so I know he’s close.”

There’s an undercurrent of fear that Leo pushes down, hiding it under the serious, no-nonsense tone that he so rarely adopts.

“He hasn’t been moving.” Leo swallows and pushes ahead. “I was hoping he was just helping with the cleanup, but I don’t think so.”

[effiomsfavorite]

Huvrye had seen the news and gotten the text from the Society, and he's debating. On one hand, helping people who need it, along with a direct order from the guild he'd joined; on the other hand, running the risk of being arrested again, and getting impaired while augmenting his strength is a recipe for disaster if those guards show up.

And then Leo's text arrives, and that's his decision made. Donnie might have gotten caught in the explosion. Donnie might be injured or dying. Donnie might need help. Everything else is secondary.

He uses his disguise to leave Dylan's apartment and duck into an alleyway far enough away to allay suspicion; he then takes off at speed, flying low and fast through the city to the museum. It doesn't take him long to get there; hopefully it's not already too late.

(It's not his first time digging through wreckage for survivors. He's trying not to think about that.)

He lands next to Leo (and Accelerator - so that's who the other person in the group text had been) in time to hear the sitrep. "Any chance you can narrow the range for the tracking, or is that as good as it gets?" It would be easy enough to start upending rubble to look for him; it could also lead to disaster if not done carefully, and Huvrye's not about to gamble with Donnie's life like that.

[levelshift]

Things must be bad if Leo is being serious. Accelerator is silent as he leans in a little (not too far, since his reflection is currently up) to look at the screen of the phone. He only spares a small glance at Huvrye before going back to staring, his mind processing the situation.

They've got his cell phone signal, so that's something, but if he hasn't been responding to Leo's yelling then he might be unconscious. Or under enough rubble that they can't hear him.

(He isn't going to entertain the third option right now.)

Shit, so what options are there? The rubble is probably going to be too thick for him to be able to pick up infrared radiation. There's the pings from the cell phone, but even just standing here he can tell there are too many signals going on for him to be able to track the specific ones going to Donnie's phone. If he had strong electromagnetic abilities like Railgun it wouldn't be an issue, but reading the vectors means he can only sense the presence or absence of radio waves. In a populated area like a city there are dozens upon dozens of signals pinging off the nearest cell phone tower at any one time, so he isn't sure how to distinguish them.

Narrowing the range of the tracking signal, even when they're working with a three dimensional space, is their best bet for the moment. So....

He frowns a little, leaning back. "Turn your bluetooth on, see if he's got anything you can try to connect to."

[faceguy]

Huvrye showing up helps the knot in Leo’s chest loosen up. They both came when he asked them to, and that means so much to him.

He hopes they don’t mind that he’s not going to spend any time expressing it at this moment. Later.

Leo is also thinking - the app lets him see where Donnie is in a flat view, but if he’s under rubble (especially deep under rubble), that has limited use. But just throwing things around willy-nilly would be dangerous - to Donnie, to themselves, to other survivors.

He wishes he were some kind of tech whiz like Donnie, then maybe he could come up with something on the fly. But right now his only immediate thought is to keep calling…

Until he’s reminded there’s another nerd here. (Meant affectionately, of course!)

“Bluetooth? Okay…”

He has no idea how that would help, but if Accelerator thinks it will, he’s willing to try. He’s willing to trust.

He goes to his phone’s Bluetooth settings; it finds a few nearby devices, but he picks out Donnie’s comm among them.

“Got it.”

[levelshift]

It's a lot more comfortable that they're focusing on the rescue rather than feelings. At least, it is for Accelerator. There's no discomfort getting in the way of problem-solving this, and definitely nothing to impede his calculations once Leo turns the bluetooth in his phone on.

He picks up the vectors for that signal immediately, and once the two devices are connected it's like a path lighting up in his brain. Without a word he turns and hops onto some rubble, climbing over it and balancing on bits of rebar and concrete like he doesn't weigh anything. Which... yeah, he's light but not that light - he's altering the vectors of gravitational forces on his body to prevent any displacement of debris as he follows the bluetooth signal. It isn't too long before he stops and looks down.

"Here. 2.7 meters directly downwards," he says matter-of-factly, tapping the concrete he's standing on with one toe to test it. "... This shit's unstable."

[faceguy]

Accelerator takes off, and Leo follows, though he picks his way much more carefully and doesn’t directly climb on the rubble. He may have a light step but he can’t make himself literally weightless like Accelerator.

When Accelerator says he’s down 2.7 meters (what is that in feet? Almost three yards?), his heart plummets to his stomach, but he pushes the panic back before he can let anything show on his face.

He wishes he could just portal Donnie out of wherever he is (some pocket in the rubble, has to be), but without a visual he would just make things worse, or possibly even hurt him directly. So no portals, just old-fashioned heavy lifting will have to do.

“Alright… let’s see if we can get this off him without causing a collapse.”

OTA

[faceguy]

[[OOC: takes place before Leo finds Donnie because he'll jet after that.]]

[Leo may have been wrangled into going to the library, and he may have even not hated that. The museum is a step too far, though, and so he declined to go with Donnie, instead spending the day in their new lair, trying to make the alcove that's functioning as his room a bit more homey.

Underground as he is, he only hears the tremors from the bombs in a far off sort of way. What really gets his attention is the sudden flood of news alerts on his phone, as well as the call for Society members to assist with the rescue efforts.

The second he sees "museum," he's moving as fast as he can.

Leo's priority is finding his brother (who he really hopes is okay and just hiding somewhere, please let that be why his location hasn't moved...), but he can't just run right past people in need of immediate assistance. He can't heal, he barely knows first aid, but he can carry people and teleport rubble and that counts for something.

Catch him trying to lift some concrete off a trapped patron.] Hey, a little help here!?

[Or see him open a shimmering blue portal to get behind a blocked doorway, peeking his head through.] This way! Come on, it's okay!

[He'll be doing whatever he can to help while he looks for Donnie.]

OTA

[levelshift]

A. Museum - afternoon

[Accelerator is no stranger to violence and destruction. He had arrived shortly after receiving both texts from the Society and Leo about Donnie being in the museum when the explosions happened, his priority being the turtle rather than anyone else trapped in the rubble. But once that rescue has been successfully completed, he's left with the task the Society had sent out to anyone in the area. Going home, while an option, would undoubtedly piss the guild off, and even though he's about as far from a hero as anyone can get, he should at least stick around and help try to prevent more deaths.

What a pain. There's a level of discomfort here he's having to ignore, as well as the twist in his gut at the idea that innocent kids got caught in the blast.

He's stepping lightly atop the rubble, hands in his pockets, altering his gravitational vectors as he walks so he doesn't accidentally disturb anything and cause any cave-ins. There's a lot of commotion and noise going on, but he's tuning all of that out, focusing on the vectors of sound waves coming from people trapped under concrete and steel and glass. It's a roundabout way, but if he can sense those specific vectors, even if they're bouncing off of things and reverberating, he can do the back-calculations to find the location of the source.

It's a strange way to use his ability, honestly, and he doesn't try to dwell on that. He can overthink it later.

He's walking over some particularly large pieces of concrete when he suddenly stops, looking down with an expression of concentration.]

Hm. I think some people are down here.

B. Museum - night

[It's later at night when the adult heroes and rescue personnel seem to get a handle on things. Rather, efforts become organized enough that they start shooing away any kids who showed up to help, for their own safety and to prevent any mishaps caused by inexperience and emotion. That includes Accelerator, which he does without complaint. He's already had to run back and forth between here and his apartment a couple of times to charge his calculation assistance device and he's getting tired of it. Thirty minutes of his ability really isn't very long at all.

He can be found across the street from what used to be the museum, sitting on the sidewalk out of the way and sipping at a bottle of water. He looks annoyed, but that's how he always looks, so it's nothing new. The light on his choker is green, and his crutch is on the ground next to him. Notably, despite the dust and dirt having been floating around all day, there isn't a speck on him.

He should really just go home. It's highly unlikely that they're going to need any more help at this point, so him hanging around is pointless.]

... Tche, what a pain in the ass.

JINX - various places & arrest

[whimsikills]

A - A WHEELBARROW OF MEMORIES

[ There is a wheelbarrow, funny enough. It's filled with things Jinx sort of liked, here in the 'ole Central City home. She's saved them before the inevitable destruction of the factory building.

There's no inventory taken - she's left behind a lot, if one were to know what she had - but the wheelbarrow is stuffed with plans, books, some creepy looking machinery. They're all shoved in haphazardly, while she fiddles with the ignition switch. ]

You're a bit late to loot the place, [is all you get before it all goes up (or down) in flames. ]

B - CAT RUNNING FROM BATH

[The wheelbarrow is long gone by now, though whether she's stashed or lost it is no one's business but her own. Jinx is real fast, and the more of her hand-held explosives she ditches as she flees, the faster she becomes.

It's all so heavy, you see. She's slightly off balance without, though, so used to the weight to keep her grounded; too used to making up for the added pull of gravity.

When it comes down to the wire it's just her, Pow-Pow, and the entourage chasing her. Unfortunately for her, Pow-Pow's also just spat out her last bullet. ] Awh nuts.

[A beat. Her chest is heaving. There are so few places to hide, really. There's no Under City to get lost in, no mines or big enough holes to disappear into. She lifts her arms and begins to shrink, make herself smaller. Make herself pitiful. ] I'll - I'll go quietly. You got me.

[Of course, the unfortunate soul who comes to her first gets the swing of a pocket knife. ]

C - END OF THE LINE

[The jail cell is nothing to write home about. It's cleaner than back home, that's for sure. It's a clean, grey box where Jinx sits with her hands enclosed up to the elbow in metal cuffs, her abilities neutralised. Not that she's ever used them, anyway.

They tell her she's going to be tried on criminal charges, but they'll push for domestic terrorism. They tell her even Frances isn't going to bother fixing up a lawyer or to fight them on it. They tell her she's got no allies left, like Jinx has ever been able to keep anyone, let alone friends.

They list the crimes to her and to anyone else who's bothered to stick around to make sure she is charged. Multiple murder charges; assault; terrorism. They tell her Fantastic will likely want to make a spectacle of her. All of this and Jinx just looks ... Bored. Completely apathetic to it all. Like none of it is happening.

When they're done, she lifts her eyes up, big and pink and heaves out a sigh. ] Sorry, you're gonna have to repeat that last part. I think you made me nod off, last thing I heard was blah blah blah ...

[People died, children -. ] O-oh, geez. Snooze.

B

[unkindled_madness]

[If she had just wanted to burn something to the ground, Sephiroth would have understood it. Hell, if she'd only hurt strangers in the process, he wouldn't have much cared. But he had to pull his Loki out of the rubble, and it does not matter to him that it was unintended, collateral damage. It's an act that demands retribution.

Which is why he's one of those in pursuit, dodging or deflecting her attacks with magic.

As they corner her, he isn't convinced for a second that she's really backing down, but he also doesn't care. He's confident enough in his own prowess and single-minded enough in his goal that he moves in anyway. It's also very clear from the way he moves that he isn't trying to apprehend her. He's reaching for her to slam her into something, and having to parry that swing from her little knife only delays him from grabbing her.

She's lucky he doesn't have his sword, he thinks.]