[plot] It ends: Day 4 of the Invasion

[theearth]

Who: EVERYONE + Returnees
What: Day 4 - the Invasion ends!
Where: All over
When: ICLy: The 2nd of May! OOCly: this post will be open indefinitely and is the last post in this community.
Warnings: Please warn in your subject line if anything that deserves a warning occurs; this includes R-rated things as well as things worthy of a content warning/trigger warning.

The Central info post



Description:

On the morning of May 2nd, the 4th day of the invasion, enemy soldiers around the world will suddenly cease their attacks. They will tell anyone around them who might hear to go home and make sure that their parents and children and other loved ones are well, and then return to their ships and take off, returning to whence they came from.

The Animals will return to their resting states... and a sight can be seen above Las Vegas and Locke City: A orange-red dragon, rising from within an unconscious Arthur York's body, flies up over Las Vegas, circles over it for a few times and then barrels into the mountain. It instantly heads for the bottom of the mountain and curls up on the gold hoard there. And there it will stay, too. At the same time, Phillip Santorini faints somewhere in Locke City. From his body, a quite different being rises and floats above the city for a while before diving right into the ground, sending tremors through the city for a while as it dives down and burrows deep under the city. The Animals of Locke City and Las Vegas have thus been replaced, and Earth has resealed all her openings, enabling those who live on her to rebuild ...eventually. The Animals will now rest until such time when they should be needed again.

Characters who went to the aliens' home world will be escorted back to Earth personally (please either thread this out with the NPC or contact Kira-mod if you wish to handwave/know ahead of time). In return for each of them, one of the named aliens will be able to return to their place, so by the end of this exchange, Geoff, Badri, Meredith (if he survived), Young and the Zhangs will all be gone.

The world isn't in a good state after their departure. North America is to a large part inhabitable or at least in a terrible state - it's pretty much your standard apocalyptic setting, complete wasteland in some and "only" ruined shambles in other areas. South America, Europe and Asia are partly in a terrible state, but in other parts all right or even untouched. Even Oceania and Africa, which saw no direct Enemy encounters, carry scars due to the world serpent smashing against them in places when fighting, though they remain for the most part as they were before the invasion. Obviously, even areas of the world that are untouched on the surface will see the disaster on their doorstep with international trade being down, tons of refugees and displaced persons all over the world, and so on.

The numbered will also find that the whole world is an echo boundary now - they won't lose their echoes anywhere any more, unless they lose them completely. Doppelgängers and Wolpertingers stay around if they survived the invasion, but all other Animals go back to sleep.


What this day is for: Wrapping up things.


How this works:
- There will be no toplevels in this plurk.
- There are no echo boundaries anymore, but the teleporter is also gone.
- This post can be used for both network and action threads.
- Keep in mind that returnee characters must have checked in and must request their echoes if they get any.
- Please direct all questions to this thread on the General Invasion Guide
- For the returnee registration, please go here.

Comments

037 ♦ off-network video, mirrored to network | open

[peacefulwinter]

[The room seems to have changed since the last time Winter posted a video from it. Her living room is now spotted with dirt and scorch marks; there's a crack in a picture on the wall behind her, and the whole room seems a little bit dimmer. The young woman herself seems a little worse for wear; her posture is less straight, and her hair is frayed and scorched in places. It doesn't look like it's been well-managed for the last three days, either. There are bags under her eyes, and she looks like she's at the end of her rope.

But... there are things left to be said. The world needs to know. She has... a duty. And she'll see it through, no matter how much it hurts. When she speaks, her voice isn't terribly steady, and not particularly loud, though she'll improve a little bit as she goes.]

I know many of you are wondering about the state of our world, right now. About the present, and the past four days. And about the future. I want to talk about those things for a little bit. I'm sure a lot of people don't really want to look at me right now, after everything, so I'll keep this somewhat short. I don't really want to look at myself, either. I'm not sure I like what I've had to become.

Three days ago, something happened. An alien, from beyond space and time, began a meticulously planned invasion of Earth. That being, whom we were introduced to only as the Boy, had sent his associates through some months prior. Tiny, an alien discovered in a farmhouse in Locke City just before the emergence of Wise Snake. The aliens that arrived in their spaceship just after that incident. More after each subsequent Animal we fought or encountered. The number came to more than half a dozen by the time the invasion started. All of those aliens had one ultimate purpose: find and expose weaknesses in Earth's defenses - which include us and the Animals - to enable a massive force to move on the planet en masse.

That force arrived in orbit three days ago, heralding the activation of the final Animal, the creature that unfolded from the moon. As the alien forces arrived on Earth, the Animals responded with their full power. They caused widespread destruction in their spheres of influence, which we Numbered refer to as barriers; we can't leave those ten places on the planet, unless we somehow move between them, and keep our powers. So we couldn't just run away. Even if we did, the aliens were out to get us. I couldn't live with myself if I let someone else get hurt to protect myself. That's... not what a Precure is. That's not what a human being is.

So we fought. When the invaders made landfall on the second day, early in the morning, we engaged them as best we could. Sheer numbers gave us the chance to fight back in Locke City, New Jersey; there simply weren't enough of us to make a difference to the defense of Las Vegas, and from there... well. The news has done a lot to cover the devastation in the Western United States. My heart aches for all of the people left behind, and I know some of the footage on the news has found its way into my nightmares, when I can manage sleep at all. We were able to defend Locke City, but at heavy cost - there's significant damage to buildings and infrastructure, to say nothing of the loss of human life that makes me sick even now. I have... buried too many, in the last six hours, faces I'd never seen, along with some I recognize.

From Locke and Vegas, the invaders moved on to barriers we'd already done battle in, but hadn't neutralized entirely. Christmas Island, Neuschwanstein, London, and a couple others. In those places, the Animal we'd left behind was more or less able to thwart the aliens, but at significant cost. I haven't seen much of the footage of London, though I hear it's bad; Tokyo is similarly damaged, but safe. I understand there are further barriers we never interacted with; in those places, damage wasn't significant. Thank heaven for small miracles, right?

Beyond the invaders themselves, there was damage to the nations of Earth caused by the giant serpent in orbit; its thrashing, while helpful to keep the Enemy's numbers from being even greater, caused its own devastation. We tried to help with early rescue efforts, but when the invasion started in earnest, we had other problems to attend to. I personally hope to get back to rescue operations within the next day, or maybe two at most.

At some point after the battle on the surface started, the aliens already on Earth seemingly had a change of heart, and between all of them and multiple conversations, we were able to piece together a way to get to the Enemy's homeworld. It was risky, but with the odds we were up against, there wasn't really a choice. Some one to two dozen Numbered took the fight directly to the Enemy, and we were able to speak to the Boy, the one in command of the whole operation. Some of the things he said are over my head, even now, but... we were able to come to an understanding. And through some luck, and his benevolence, our world is safe. All of the Enemy's forces retreated, and each of the aliens that had come prior to the invasion returned home. Everyone... everyone made it back, somehow.

[Winter's tone becomes much more somber.] I am aware that many, many people are not in such a pleasant situation. There are those that did not come home, those who have no home to return to. My own home is damaged; I count myself lucky, as there's a crater not a hundred feet from my front door where one of the first spaceships landed. If I had the strength, the ability, the resources to help all those who have been wronged by this, whose lives are in danger, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But... I don't have those things. I'm nineteen. I can't. But I still want to try. There are things within my power, and as long as this body of mine can still move, I'll do what I can.

Many of us will. Calamity has befallen our world: very, very few things in the history of our planet have had such a tremendous effect on it. Yet, I believe in the power of everyone on Earth to make a difference. I've been helped up from a dark time in my life, and I want to pay that forward, as many times as I can. There are little things all of us can do to work toward making our home shine once again. I know that, at a time like this, it's hard to have hope. But because it's hard, we have to believe. We can rebuild our world. We can recover from this tragedy. We can make a difference in our lives, in everyone's lives. Together, we can raise the Earth.

[A tiny smile returns to Winter's face as she continues.] I have a feeling this is the last time I'll make a broadcast like this. From here... it'll all be little things. Places I've gone, people holding onto hope, things that we can make work again. It'll take time, and a lot of work, but with everyone's help, we'll make our world shine once more. That is my wish, for the present and for the future. I hope all of you will join me to see it through.

Thank you for listening to me one last time. To everyone out there that is watching this and don't know how to help... ask your neighbors, your friends. Look for your answer. And to those of you that lost things, lost loved ones, lost everything... hold on to your hope. There is light at the end of the tunnel. That is a promise.

Farewell, people of Earth.

[network]

[lackinginfaith]

You did well, Winter. [These people aren't "kid" anymore. They haven't really fit the collective name for years.] How are you holding up?

[peacefulwinter]

Thanks, Kari... that means a lot. [It's tired, but she manages a real smile. This is one of those people she's glad to have approval from... ah, no, better to cut that thought off, before she thinks of the rest.] I've been better, but I'm in one piece. That's probably all I can ask, right?

action;

[alilyinthemoonslight]

[Lily sits and she listens. She lets Winter talk, as she always has. Winter was better at that than her, and if anything she seemed to have something of a calling for it. Funny, for a girl who once stammered over her words so much. Before Lily had gotten to know her, before her voice had become more sure. She'd gotten to see the evolution of that first hand, and in her more proud moments likes to think she had something to do with it.

Right now, she's not sure she could say "proud" feels appropriate for the last few days and where they've ended up. Yes, they've won. Their lives can move forward, in at least some capacity. They're breathing... but at what cost? As the video feed ends, Lily rises from where she's sitting, and doesn't say a word. Her face says everything - every bit of worry and fear she'd been holding back the past several days, everything she'd put to the side to keep herself sane. To keep her mind sharp... It seems like it's finally threatening to spill over, and she just sits beside her, reaching her long arms out to wrap around the woman she loves.]

...that's really it then, isn't it, Winter?

[peacefulwinter]

[Lily has had something to do with it, though she's not the only one. And some of the people she'd attribute that to... aren't here anymore. Still, Lily's become her security blanket in a lot of ways the others never had. Never would, possibly; Winter had always been kind of weird about who she'd let herself lean on.

Winter takes a few seconds after she turns off the feed to let out a breath; that's the moment Lily slides in, and when she feels the warmth there, she lets her walls down, shivering a little bit and letting her head rest on Lily's shoulder. She hasn't worked past enough of the rising numbness, now that she's done what needed to be done, to do much else.]

That's it. We... won. Earth is safe, now.

[Silence for a moment. Then, she turns just a little bit, into Lily, a little more of her uncertainty bleeding into her tone.]

So why does it feel so hollow...?

Network text

[dragon_blossom]

i still dont know how everythings gonna work out but im glad youre holding up well enough to wrap things up like that. tbh if i ever need a speechwriter im coming to you.

[ This text, of course, is coming from whatever medical facilities Marina's ended up in... ]

[peacefulwinter]

I'm coping. I'm not in as high of spirits as I look. But there's work to be done, still, and I don't think anyone is going to let me say I'm too depressed to get to it.

I admit, I lost track of things at the end of the battle - are you all right, Marina?

Network Video

[guitar_case_vagabond]

[Winter's not the only one looking rather ragged, although Raye is... different. Physically, she doesn't have a mark anywhere on her, a blessing from her unnatural healing, but she looks... tired anyway. Her eyes are red and bloodshot and her hair looks like a mess. Noticeable as well is the simple, baggy t-shirt she's wearing. Maybe something that wouldn't have any meaning for most, but in her case....

... It's the first time in months that Raye's been on the network alone.

She sits for awhile, looking tired before she manages a small, weak smile. Possibly the first all day.]

You're gettin' pretty good at these speeches. Startin' to sound like something even I'd buy.

[peacefulwinter]

[The face on the screen looking... more or less okay is a relief, even if it's pretty clear something's still wrong. She can't put her finger on it, but...]

It's kind of crazy, isn't it? It wasn't that long ago that I couldn't finish a sentence straight on. Now... things have changed so much. We've all grown a lot...

[...ah. Now she gets it.] Where's Senketsu? Hanging up somewhere? Are you okay?

Network video

[charcoalfeather]

[Surprisingly, one of the things not destroyed in the invasion had been Rakka's phone, which she was happy about, despite the lack of signal at the moment.

When Rakka replied, she looked almost as worse off as Winter did. There were cuts and bruises on her face and arms, some of which had already started to heal up. Her hair was a mess, though that was a natural thing by now. Overall she looked tired, every tired, despite the way she was smiling.]

I liked that speech. It kind of... gave all of this a way to close, kind of like an anime I watched a few months ago. [She laughs softly, wincing.]

[peacefulwinter]

[Somehow, she's not surprised Rakka looks about as beat up as Winter feels; her friend had worked hard, and all things considered, it'd been a good fight. The wounds would heal, and the scars fade. It'll all be fine...]

That's what I was aiming for. I can't speak for billions of people around the world, but I wanted us to have a chance to understand what happened from a larger perspective. To be able to take everything in from a broad view, and drill down into details as much or as little as we need.

...Thanks, Rakka. I'm proud of you, after all that. You've worked hard.

Network Video

[icy_heavens]

[Toushirou is in pretty rough-looking shape. The blood has been cleaned up, but there's still some bruising across his face, and he looks pretty worn-out.]

I guess we do have a lot ahead of us, don't we? At least we've gotten this whole alien invasion hell out of the way now.

[peacefulwinter]

You're hur- [She cuts herself off; Toushirou is responsible enough to know how to pick his battles, so she's not going to get on his case. He'd gotten through, in more or less one piece, and that's enough for her. Mentally, she checks another box off her list of people to ascertain the health of; there's still quite a few lines to hit.]

-yeah. It's over, now. We can focus on rebuilding... on a lot of things. There's so much work to do...

[Okay, yeah, she can't help it.] ...you're all right, aren't you?

network

[scarlet_devil]

A bit... wordy, don't you think?

[Guess who is still around and basically managed to survive the whole thing down on Earth?]

[peacefulwinter]

Maybe a little bit. After everything, I think I'm allowed. Even setting aside my desire for closure... I have wishes I want to put to paper. While I still can.

[Her eyes flash; she's not in the best of moods, and the sarcasm wasn't appreciated.]

So I'm not going to let anything hold me back. Not anymore. [The note of challenge in her tone is... not inconsiderable. And surprisingly forceful, given it's Winter.]

Marina

[dragon_blossom]

Action In Neuschwanstein or something?

It had seemed improbable. Almost impossible. Victory? Winning against odds like those? Convincing their invader that he was wrong!? Maybe it was a Precure thing, maybe it was an Earthling thing, maybe... maybe that Boy just needed to talk to the right people no matter what.

Marina had come close to death. The shrapnel that had struck her face could have been a little off in one direction or another and hit her neck, or entered her brain, and that would've been lights out. The lights were still out on the left side of her face, and with the state of the world, and all the people in critical condition, the best they could was keep her from bleeding, or getting infected, or worsening in other ways - they hadn't even informed her if there was an eye to try to save left in there.

At least her right eye was uncovered, and she was conscious and aware enough to text, if only barely through the painkillers, because good lord did she need some communication to take her mind off of her own sorry state. Visitors were allowed too, though she might not be in the right condition for it, because it's hard to keep that sort of thing straight when the world has just almost ended.

Network Text

hey peeps marina here just in case anyones wondering or looking for me i am alive and in one piece and stable and drugged up in the hospital with a wrecked up face

doubt anyones heard word about my family but im trying to keep my ears open about that too

[ She's proud of how coherent that was. ]

Re: Marina

[jasminebloominginshadow]

The last time things were like this, Jasmine had been on the other end of the equation. Somehow, this had all ended with their victory, but Jasmine had been absolutely terrified for Marina's safety. And for good reason... her fiance had lost her eye. And unlike Jasmine's own debilitating injury, her's wouldn't be healing so absolutely.

Jasmine was at her side most of the time she was able, as could be expected. She did everything in her power not to remind Marina or make her feel self conscious about her eye, but even she couldn't help but glance at it from time to time.

She felt really bad about it. But Marina was still beautiful to her. That would never change.

But she loved Marina. She wouldn't let this get in the way of what they'd both decided, either. And so, she came every day, to sit with Marina, to talk with her, to do whatever Marina wanted. But she was also absolutely exhausted herself, which meant, currently, Jasmine had dozed off sitting in her chair beside her.

Give her a break. It was late.

[dragon_blossom]

Marina didn't want people to panic over her, or lose sleep over her, or blame themselves for her injury - but she knew she couldn't stop any of that. She'd been on the other side of this before, worrying for her girlf-fiance now, praying that she could recover, and that... had worked out.

This would too. While her eye was gone, and the scar would end up quite large, they'd won this battle, the most important one of all. Now they had time to heal, to fret, to grieve, and to just be there for each other.

It was comforting enough to just watch Jasmine sleeping for now, though, and she smiled, swinging her legs around to sit on the side of her bed. Getting around was a little dicey with all the pain medication, and her head throbbing in spite of it all, but she wasn't half as tired as Jasmine.

Reki (doppelganger)

[charcoalfeather]

[Neuschwanstein - Action]

It was a long, long time before the fighting stopped. Reki didn't pause to check the time, she simply knew it had been a few days with the rise and fall of the sun and moon. Was the time and date necessary? Probably not. It just started to seem as though the fighting would go on forever between the Doppelgangers, the Aliens, and anyone else caught in between.

Reki had set aside her differences with the general population of Earth, at least for now. All of the Doppelgangers had felt it - some subconscious urge to protect the area around the castle. It went further for some, but Reki was content to stay there. There were aliens here she could take her frustrations out on for the good of Humankind.

But one day, to her shock, the aliens... left. They stopped and left, leaving the world behind to lick its wounds. The castle, with its crumbling walls and destroyed courtyard, was still standing. And Reki was still alive as well. Although, she had to figure that was a shaky claim at the moment. She had cuts and bruises, and likely a few cracked ribs. But the pain of those things paled in comparison to the burning she felt in her left arm.

Or, what was left of it. She never got to see what exactly happened to make her lose a little more then half of the limb... but the results were enough to consider herself lucky.

Reki shakily picked herself up and dragged herself out of the castle, cradling her rapidly bleeding arm with her other arm. Her face contorted in pain. "God... fucking dammit! Damn aliens... Damn planet...!"

[dragon_blossom]

How were they alive? No, really. Umi was fairly certain that she and Reki, when they headed off to battle, were going to their deaths. Anyone who joined them? Dead as dead can be. The real numbered had better teamwork and superior numbers and in some cases even greater power at this point, they had a stronger motivation, they had it all.

They'd won the battle, but apparently, at least Umi was alive, and, with armor cracking, sword tossed aside, and bloody wounds all over her body, she staggered back across the battlefield that her home had become for some time, eyes open for any other survivors, until she spotted one.

Reki! Despite how utterly awful she felt, fighting for a planet she hardly cared for, and the complicated relationships she'd formed, her lips turned up in a smile for a moment at seeing Reki alive, and she waved as she picked up her pace. "Hey! I didn't die either!"

[charcoalfeather]

Reki had expected nothing good to happen in that fight. They weren't as powerful as their real counterparts, in different ways. They couldn't even be called a proper team. A team of assholes in a castle, that was it. But still, she saw the others running out to fight as well. For a brief and shining moment, everyone was on the same side. And now they could return to ignoring one-another.

Even with the Precure powers to protect her, Reki's normal attire showed almost as much wear and tear, not with added bloodstains soaking in. These clothes were going in the trash... possibly with her still in them.

A voice cut through Rakka's hazy, furious mind. Umi.... right, they had promised not to die here, or something like that. With a less then happy look on her face, she started towards the other woman. "Yeah.... good for you!"

Las Vegas; Ruins [OTA]

[knights_king]

[Enemy forces vanished. Arthur had drained himself of a great deal of the power he had, exhausted by the end of it all. His armor and sword vanished, so at least he could be released of the cumbersome burden of more weight and focus. He was uninjured at that moment, falling onto his back with little grace as he looked to Emilia, his grief and sadness stricken down by the realization that, even with their losses, there was still something that had been won.

He shut his eyes, the weak little smile he wore persisting long enough to say--]

Think I'll take a nap right here, Emi.

(OOC: During Arthur's bout of unconsciousness, a giant red dragon will appear out of his chest and hide in Vegas' echoed-in mountains! Feel free to assume your muse has seen this happen.)

[scarlet_devil]

[If she were human, she was sure she'd been killed a hundred times over. But for the aliens to just up an leave like this was... unexpected, to say the least.

Her family got out of Vegas just in time, things were close for them, but everyone else... She'd lost friends these past days. None of them numbered, but they were still dear to her.]

Arthur...?

[Text]

[espigeonage]

Red. You alive?

[Text]

[mistakesmakeuswhoweare]

Yeah. For now. Obviously you are too?