Once again this is the rough draft from lunch, this time a little more incoherent– but I’m many thousands of words behind and it looks like my free time may be going into a crunch with work kicking into overtime next week. So it may need a LOT of work later, but it’s words on paper for now! ^_^

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This cities were brighter now, with every light on and every sterrt light lit against the night. There wwere still ppol or darkness after night, no way to escape it even under the brightest of football lights (as many places had commendeered the lighting and moved it into more populated areas)

in suburbua no one went out after sunset, which made for much shorter days in the winter months. workplaces had given up trying to insist that workers stay late, as they were in as much danger in the stores as outside ehn ti came to makeing the trips in and home. besides no customers would risk possible death for simple things

so there was a mass layoff for many companies that focus on those who kept early and later hours, because their clientel went missing

so there were more folks unemployed and unable to make rent and with the end of the world there was a similar collapse in the economic ctructure.

there were whole professions that vanished overnight

nigth acts in bars
bars
farmers of large animals
early morning gargage men now roamed the daylit streets
no papers inth emoring
no line at the starbucksa for the cup of coffee to keep yourself awake against the coming dawn

and the military stopped holding formations outside, and started pulling as many people onto base as they could. that way they didn’t risk even the daylight commyute.

the lighting companies were making millions or would have made millions if the governments would let them. instead they ended up shelling out product that they would never get paid for, factories working overtime to keep everyone in the light

which is when the rolling brownouts started happenining. electricity was a scarce commodoity before, now it was a viatl one. people were unpluigging everything they could execpt the lights a tnight, but they kept all of those one, even in places they weren;t needed

the electric company was the new king of the hill, quickly takern over by the military as the countires made sure the one thing that kept them safe was going to keep going. they started putting things in palce to ratin power to the houses, so that people only got so much. there were warnings all over the place on how much you could use and what that much electricity would run.

computers bit the dust along with air conditioners, dishwashers, laundry rooms, everything that took power away from the lights was a quick death in most places. the few places that had excess pwoer, with nuclear stations and other sources that could be ramped up to meetthe demand were working on ways to move their power across the country to areas that needed it

but there was a problem with signal strength and the loss of current to resistance over the miles. ther was no easy way to get the power to the places that needed it… so they worked on ghetting the people to the places with power insterad.

this was part of the good guys plan, to get power generation in palce and to make sure that they could sustain as many people as they could for as long as they could. lights that wouldn’t burn out were the primnary goal, so LEDs and whatnot and power generation that didn’t depend on the sun or on burining things that were mined in darkness was also a plus. There were mirrots and fires and all sorts of more primative lighting in place, so that if th eelectricty did fail they would be safe from the darkness

and then there was the issue of sanitation, becayse no one was going to maintain sewers or pick up trash early or work at the dumps

the outside jobs could be done now but when the veil finished moving over they would be very limited. the new forcast was for a lot more overcats days, rain, and other autmosphereic events that added to the overall feeling. why this was needed, no one knew, but if Evil required a dark and stormy night then that was what it was going to get.

there seemed to be a lot of rules to the contest and the result that didn’t make sense, but since it was put in palce by someone not evern the immortals rememebered there was a lot about it they were just never going to understand.

So they needed to move inside, but an inside that allowed as much sun as possible. the inside was mailing to protect them from the elecements since the demons could movge through walls and barriers with ease as long as they coudl find a shadow.

so they needed enough light t oturn things into high noon, more or less. they could get away with just a bit of shadow since the critters couldn’t manifest as solidly. they just settled for popping in ans scaring people since that freaked the out and made them more likely to run into as shadows they could actually attack from

so they are setting up a compound either where the weather is nice enough to live without walls, o0r someplace where there are very large building with really good lighting (or lighting that can easily be improced.

am assuming they would want see trhough waslls for the jmost part since that would cut down in the the maount of light needed to produce to keep the shadows out. so maybe a really buit plastic building with lots and lots of mirrors and lighting. in theory you could keep the light bouncing around for forever if you set things up right. which makes for a ‘city of lights’ and it makes atlantic make much more sense.

So we are looking to keep people alive for the long term, not defeat the evil or kill off all the demons or anything useful like that we just need to survive until the next contest and make sure that this time we win.

so couldn’t we just do what brian did? stack the odds in our favor?

yeah, only we’d have to get his key object from him and I don’t think we’re going to have ti wasy fighting our way through the stronghold of evil to get at him.

We ould just wait until he dies, it is a thousand years after all

and then we have to bet on the fact that he would use the rest of his life to make sure that his position is as strong as possible

well mayeb he wont

what?

well hes all for the survival of the fittest and whatnot, does that nessisarly mean htat he doesn’t want Good to win he nect time this happeneds? I think his rant was more along the lines that having nothing but Good for that many millenium was bad for us, that we need Evil to balance out the Good or we go sfopt. Which means he does think we need Good.

He may have just done this to the contest rolling again it was in hibernation for so long because they jammed ht works.

Yeah, don’t suppose tou know how they did that>

Nope.

And ideas as to what wen’t wrong? other than Atlantis sank beneith the sea?

Nope.

You are not very helpful!

it’s not my job to be helpful. it’s my job to help the chosen one and seeing how he’s dead, my job is nothing.

you could at least pretend to be on our side in this.

Why? seriously, you’re the poeple who trapped me under the ocean for five thousand years by muself. i may be immortal but i’m not dead. at least not yet. I’ve tried.

You had the city atleast, I don’t think evil or neutral had anyonew. am sort of suprised they didn’t go mad over the years.

actually evil had wuite a cult going for a while, he was really pissed about being cut off like that. I don’t think balance had any clue what was going on, and well, i was actually pretty proud that they thought it up to start with anyyways

im still not sure what anything we could have done would mucl up the works. the rules are pretty clear that if the items aren’t picke dup by an avatar then they will randomly move around the globe until they find someone. which is a really bad way to chose someone to defeend the human race

well think o it this way, evil had just as much luck finding someone that would be synmpathetic as good would. there aren’t that many people in the wrold who would really waht to see a thousand years of darkness, the current insanity aside.

well at leastbrian was kind neough to tell us what was going on, even if he did it too late to be any help. so we know what we are getting into and we have some time to prepare… does make me wish I’d spent more time listedning to my crazy cousin and his survivalist rants. he’s sitting pretty at the moment and I’m stuck in a daycare center.

You do understand that I can’t protect you from the demons, right? Evil watches as Brian did a last count through of the things he needed for the trip. They aren’t something that can be controlled, they just are. If you thought this was going to give you some sort of powers over darkenss you are in for a rather rude awakening.

Nope, wasn’t expecting any favors. Would have found a way to turn them down if I was. Brian secured the pack flaps and ties. This isn’y about me, as hard as that is for you to understand, this is about the need of the many and at this point the needs of the many seriously outweight the needs of me.

But your won, I dont see why you want to go treaking out in the middle of nowhere in order to thwart things that already need to be thwarted . there is nothing they can do at this point to tstop the veil.

I know.

Sop why are you going? Not that I am going to stop you, you’re free to pursue whatever suicidal whims your heart desires, I’m just curious.

I’m out to make sure they don’t fail in saving the world. I’m sort of counting on them to make sure that humaity survives. would be foolish of me to just let them work without checking up now and then.

but they will kill you when they see you, how are you going toget around that?

They won’t know it’s me, most likely. And if they do, killing me won’t be the first thing on their minds, they are the Good Guys after all.

I don’t think they’ll pause long enough to give you a final monologue.

Nope, I’m betting they will try and convert me to the side of Good. They think I’m misguided, not Evil. Which maybe I am, but either way it will keep me alive long enough to make sure they don’t muck this up.

Well, I’d say it was nice knowing you, but really it’s been more of a headache. Evil tipped his glass to Brain as he shouldered the pack and took one last look around the evil lari. Let’s do this again in a thousand years!

Not if I cna help it, Brian snorted, no one wants to live that long on purpose. no offense.

I’ll take it anyway, since you won’t be around to notice. Evil guesstured and the minions came to escort Brian to the parking garage. Be safe, my strange little avatar, and have fun saving the world.

Thanks.

If you are going to go walking in the woods it’s best to bring your own light with you. Kat eyed her led and fiberoptic covering with something akin to resignation. She still hadn’t goptten used to the idea that she would have to look like some candy fuel children’s dream, but on the upside, she would be very very well lit.

There was a small handcrank generator, a backpack of batteries, and a whole mess of material for chemlights strapped to her side. The only way she was going to run out of light was if at least a dozen things went wronhg all at oncel. She was counting on Murhpy’s law to hold off jsut this once, so she could get this done and over with.

The only thing worse than having to rescue Alec was having to put herself in danger to rescue Aelc and she was a very grumpy Kat. But Zoe was crystal clear in her expectations of what Kat would and wouldn’t have to do in order to help save the world (or at least as much of the world as they had lift) and Kat raelly wastn’t willing to cross her.

The Matron might be a scary person that figure highly in Kat’s nightmares, but Zoe was qwuickly gaining popularity as nightmare fuel. Well, at least angry Zoe was. Pelasenet Zoe was actually a pretty nice person, all things considered. A little too Good and a little too short on pragmatism, but someone she found that she could work with without too much onclift.

Alec on the otherhadn..

Kat finished priming the vest, listened halffeatedly to the instructions on what she should do if things went wrong (other than run, which was always a popular plan B in history book) and how to make sure that she could get Alec out if it turned out he was incapacitated.

Or dead. her mind added, and she shushed it. because the little voices in your head weren’t supposed to be worried about what happened to white knoghts, they were suppoesd to be focused on makethe world a better place one bulelt at ta time and on how to get there was as little work as possible. they should not be thinking about how Alec might be hurt, or dead, or lying there waiting for her to rescue him and wondering what the hell was taking her so long.

So she head out into the woods to save the one person she was pretty sure they wo0uld be better off without— save for the little voice in her head that was inisiting that if worse came to worse she was going to makes rue everyone who had hurt him died a very VERY painful death.

“I still don’t get it.” Alec had given uptrying to sit up and was leaning at and angle on the bed, watching Brian with suspicion. “You are the one who atsrtaed all of this, and now you want to undo i?

Nope, I want to make sure this is a learning expereince and not a darwin award. Brian took a sip of the soup, ah there we go. He carefully ladeled out two bowls and handed Alec one. I say it’s hot, but oyur not an idiot, but be careful anyawys. I’m pretty sure they already thing I’vekilled oyu.

I hope not, Kat’s pretty prone to nuking first and asking questions later if there’s no collateral damage to be had. Actually I’m not sure she even considers me to -be- colateral damage, so we might be screwed either way.

Cheery though that. Are all the people on the Good team this, err, overzealous?

I suppose we all are to an extent, but you have to give they fact that we really the good team ,we’re more of the ‘what’s left’ team. We’re just the factions that most likely only be killing each ot her off as we work towards the end goal. The factions that would be infighting are already doing so, but thankfully we are out of their range.

So you are the monstly-Good, eh? Brian grinned.

A veritiable slew of Grey Knights at your service.” Alec gav a mock bowa nad then cursed as he slopped a little bi tof soup onto his fingers.

Told you it was hot

thanks

The veil was almost done moving nd the days had darkened and the skys were overcast. he streets were empty, save for the random person driving from place ot place. there was no foot traffic anymore, at least not unless the sun was strong through the clouds. Ther cars were tiny things, stripped of as much metal as they coudl be and still drive. anything to save gas and keep the light flwoing.

it was odd what you could likve without when you had to.

the shops and strores were all closed expect for ht ewallmarts sndf indoor malls that had turned into living areas as well as markets. ther were hydroponic gardens all ove the placde, even crops just gorowing wild as the demons were uninstrersted in veggies. so they did hareting runs now and then in the big machines that picked crops under floodlights and an army of lighjt.

not all crops did well inthe new weather patterns those that didn’t like indirect dunlight were regulated to the greenhouses and hydroponics labs, which mean the diet was restricted not only to what could be grown locally but what woudl survrve the weather changes.

there was a lot of canned food as thye world ahd been gearing upright unti lteh last veisl feel the govenrments had given up [atrolling, allowing the state sns the socmmunities to break down into smaller groups. there was no easy way to communicate anyjmore, the satalites would eventually fall adn the phones would give out. there as still radio but it ruqired a lot of pwoer to broadcast, they were down to walkie talkies and short diastance radios.

do they played the game oftelephone and passed the messages from one coast ot the othe, town by town using electricity instead of poinies. itwas the wild west all over again only without the buffalo and with mroe literal demons for the churches to preach against

not that the curches were have the best of time, since the demons didn’t respond to any of the religions. they weren’t suppoes to call them demons, but thats what they had been clladed since the beginning and people were bad at breaking haibts.

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