[Nexus] ...There Is Only Plot (DC's Plots)

[Darkcomet]

A thread to contain my various plottings and random nonsense, since it proved difficult to keep track of last time I did something. Last time as of this writing, that is, which would be Operation Ascendant in Outside. So messy.

But enough rambling like this is the OOC thread.

Current plots are:

Spoiler: The grim darkness of the near future

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Nonexistent. But soon...

[Darkcomet]

Cutscene post.

A great city sits in the far corners of the Nexus, a glistening, wondrous place with all the benefits high levels of technology and magic can bestow. It is known by many names among various people: The Auroral City, the Argentum Metropolis, and many others. The origin of the names becomes obvious if you ever get a look at the place: The sky is marked by strange perpetual auroras, and the city itself seems to shine when observed from a distance, a vibrant declaration of supremacy over the forces of the universe.

It has managed to escape many of the terrors of the Nexus, its glistening spires and brilliant lights shining in perpetuity no matter the horror that might be experienced elsewhere. It owes this at least in part to its isolation from others, rejecting contact with the powers of the former Empire and the various organizations entirely. The city's denizens enjoy a relatively safe and stable life, at the cost of not being able to leave.

But then, most never want to, with all the city offers. The city is ruled by a cabal of heavily bio-and cyber-augmented magi, forming a sort of immortal techno-magocracy. They reign over the city from their great skyscraper, watching all that happens below and keeping it all in working order.

It is a place that could be said to have 'made it', but the problem with that is that when people have nothing to fear, they often grow complacent. They grow weak and ignorant from the spoils of prosperity, falling into decadence and stagnation.

And when that happens, it becomes easy for others to take it all away in an instant.

An outline of a large, blue circular anomaly appears, rapidly expanding and contracting but swiftly growing larger overall, emitting a painfully loud version of what would otherwise be called a hum. Eventually, the shifting stops, the outline becoming static...

And filling in with blue as the rift fully opens. A giant aircraft doesn't come screaming out of it, though. Instead, what comes out is a single projectile, aimed straight down at the top of the Techmagi Spire. To any onlooker, it happens too fast to tell, but it digs deep into the great tower, through the floors and enchantments, and then detonates in a flash of white light intermixed with unusual black streaks that look an awful lot like lightning. The explosion itself is not that large, but whatever it did, the tower immediately begins collapsing, parts even imploding on themselves as the techno-arcane systems that made it possible suddenly no longer function.

After the blast, no clear source of the shell emerges, but smaller aircraft, some working to airlift ground vehicles of some type, begin emerging from the rift, descending on the city below as it falls into chaos with the people and systems that controlled its wonders annihilated.

It won't last long. The rift doesn't vanish, oddly, instead merely shrinking to a smaller size that probably restricts further reinforcement by whatever invading force this is. Though to anyone with a certain capability to look, and the knowledge of a certain obscure individual and his odd little aircraft, they will seem very familiar, indeed...