8431/The Last Archivist: Prologue
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| The Last Archivist: Prologue | |
|---|---|
| Date of Scene: | 25 October 2021 |
| Location: | London, England |
| Synopsis: | When assassins come for Jonathan Sims, his husband Martin Blackwood fakes his own death in order to track down the killer. But the world of the Archivist is a stranger one than Martin knew, and he'll have to use more than just SHIELD resources to figure out what's going on. |
| Cast of Characters: | Jonathan Sims, Martin Blackwood
|
- Jonathan Sims has posed:
It starts the day Jonathan Sims wakes screaming from a nightmare and babbles something incoherent in Martin's arms about "John" and "demons" that makes no sense. The call from England is almost a relief, even if it's to say that Jon's grandmother, Gertrude, has died.
They fly to England, and find that Gertrude has left much of the contents of her apartment to Jon. They run into his cousin, Sasha, briefly, and there's an odd moment when Sasha glares at Jon as if he's stolen something from her, and makes a snippy comment about him getting more than he deserves.
She doesn't say it aloud. Jon hears it from her mind, and tells Martin, terrified, that he thinks he's developed telepathic powers.
The dreams continue, too, and the whole thing is a maybe little terrifying: Martin is watching his husband unravel in slow motion, unable to sleep, avoiding the crowds of London, crying in the hotel bathroom because he can't shut out all the /noise/. It's a blessed relief, to be in the familiar (to Jon) confines of Gertrude's flat, going through the items she'd left him.
- Martin Blackwood has posed:
Martin's life with John hadn't been carefree, but they were happy. Despite the tumult of 2018, they managed to get through it together and move on with their lives. This new development changes that. While Martin hadn't know Jon's grandmother that well, the effect of her death on Jon is clear enough to make him miss her as much as a member of his own family.
Being back home in London was supposed to be comforting and reassuring until Jon reveals that he's received telpathic abilities from somewhere. A number of questions run through Martin's mind: Should he tell SHIELD? Is this a mutation or some sort of freak exposure? Could Jon learn to control this power and perhaps help society in general with it? Surely his own practice would benefit.
And while, for Jon, the flat of his grandmother is calming, Martin's mind is focused on other matters and his lack of sleep is making him more and more fatigued by the day. They are both struggling to adapt to a world without the presence of Gertrude.
- Jonathan Sims has posed:
Jon is talking about his grandmother's travels, standing in front of a statue of the ibis-headed god, Thoth. "Oh, you'd like him," he says as he reaches out for the statue. Martin knows that tone: Jon's about to launch into one of his eidetic memory-fueled lectures. "Thoth's Greek equivalent was Hermes, he's the god of wisdom, of writing, of science and--"
The lecture is interrupted by a crash. The door to the flat has been broken down and a group of men have burst in. They're armed, and definitely looking for violence
Everything seems to move in slow-motion for a moment. Jon turns, and there's an almost /tangible/ sense to his words as he speaks to them--he's not merely speaking, he's performing some kind of... magic? Power? Telepathic compulsion, maybe?
"Stop! What are you doing here?!"
The men, amazingly, /stop/, as if Jon's command is a physical wall past which they cannot move. "We're here to kill the Archivist," the leader says, and seems stunned that he said it aloud.
Jon gasps, takes a step back. Neither of them have heard the title before, but Jon clearly seems to think 'the Archivist' means him.
- Martin Blackwood has posed:
Martin doesn't hesitate. Regardless of who this "Archivist" is, the men are dangerous and his husband is in danger. His first thought is to rush them, but their weapons and numbers would surely leave him dead in moments. But moments are all Jon needs to escape. He makes an executive decision and pulls power around him. It's a lot of power for him to throw around, but he's had practice with enough field ops.
Creating a true physical seeming of himself in his place while he fades into invisibility is a simple matter. Maintaining that seeming while it moves is a bit harder. The copy turns to Jon and shouts, "Jon! Run! Get out of here!" before launching himself at the group at the door. He's not a big man, but he's stocky and has a low center of gravity. He plows into the leader, pushing the group back into the hall beyond by the compounded force of his bull rush.
- Jonathan Sims has posed:
Jon hesitates only for a moment. His usual instinct when in danger is to /fight/--a fact which has caused Martin no end of worry over the course of their life together. But then the leader stabs the copy, and by the shock on Jon's face he thinks Martin must be dead.
It's only then, that he runs.
So now it's just Martin and the would-be assassins. The leader shouts, "Get after him!" to one of the men behind him.
- Martin Blackwood has posed:
Martin waits until he is certain that Jon has truly escaped before releasing the seeming. The slowly bleeding out body fades, startling the man who stabbed it and causing alarm to the other two. "I'm sorry, Jon" he says softly and creates a disc of invisible force from his concealed position. He throws it at the head assassin and it slams into him with a satisfactory thud of impact before sending the man into a wall with a loud crack of crumbling plaster and drywall.
He's already moving before the thrown knife impacts the wall behind where he had been. He closes the distance between the other armed man and avoids a stab as the moving air gives him away. A simple touch under the man's chin and an effort of will and the man's eyes roll up into his head before he drops unconcious.
He staggers forward as something hard hits him in the back. It's the last man. The invisibility drops from him and it's just him versus the last remaining assassin.
But SHIELD training in unarmed combat is not to be trifled with regardless of size. He dodges and feints before a series of quick punches and an uppercutting elbow renders the last one unconscious.
He moves to the one he took out first the plane of force and presses a foot on his throat. "Who sent you and why are you after my husband!?" he asks, removing his firearm from its side holster. He levels it at the man and thumbs back the hammer. "I'm not going to ask twice." The pain and anger in his tone is clear enough to tell that he means business.
- Jonathan Sims has posed:
"You think I'm afraid of gun?!" The man glares up at Martin. Then he says something in some horrific sounding language, and his eyes roll up into the back of his head as his body jerks and spasms.
He's dead. But his compatriots are still quite alive.
- Martin Blackwood has posed:
Martin imagines the other two will be just as unintimidated by conventional means and instead goes to search their bodies. He doesn't have much time, the commotion of the door was likely enough to draw alarm and the struggle after surely was enough. He rifles through pockets and coats, looking for anything that might give him a clue as to where these individuals came from. There is nothing on them to give him any clues aside from a strange mark on them. It looks like a tattoo, but there is a significance to them that he can't place.
After coming up empty he shakes his head and pulls out his phone. SHIELD's databases could technically identify anyone from a variety of video cameras. It's possible they could do the same with these three. He takes pictures of the men and then of their individual markings (making sure to correspond them in the same order) before calling the police and then SHIELD.
He would need to explain this to his superiors and have them forge the documents of his demise. The would-be assassin leader could not expect him to be coming after him if he was to find them.
It doesn't take long before a car comes to pick him up and he's taken to a secure location that SHIELD owns in the area. Even less for him to hand his phone to one of the techs and to have them look at the men in the photos as well as their markings. Anything for an ID that could lead him after his next step.
- Jonathan Sims has posed:
London is the most surveilled city in the world, and SHIELD has access to most of that surveillance. It doesn't take long for them to pull up video of the three men meeting with Sasha James, of all people. And she's sporting the same tattoo they were.
So Jon's cousin wants him dead, and is maybe part of some strange cult, and evidently he's 'the Archivist' now.
- Martin Blackwood has posed:
Martin instructs the tech guys to try and follow Sasha to where she's going and heads out. He'll file the paperwork for a personal project later, but he's on a mission to save his husband right now. He moves to the armory on site and starts getting a tactical suit on. Something with strike plates if he can manage it, because he'd rather not get knifed in reality if he can help it.
He knows that following this woman (and perhaps an entire cult) on his own is dangerous, but danger isn't important. Saving Jon from her menance is. Once suited up, he checks again and if the tech crew has a latest location for him, he'll head out to it.
- Jonathan Sims has posed:
For the next few weeks, Martin follows Sasha as she moves around London. She's not following Jon directly, but it's clear she's keeping tabs on him somehow. She meets with him at Gertrude's funeral without issue, and otherwise seems to be doing some kind of research.
There are times Martin can't follow her--times when something else is peering in on her, and times when she appears to be meeting with someone. He can gather that she's strong with magical prowess, and if she'd taken on Jon and Martin directly they'd likely be dead, but she was probably trying to have plausible deniability.
Martin also can figure out, from Sasha's conversations and some of the research she's doing, Gertrude Robinson used to be 'The Archivist,' the keeper of a vast store of mystical knowledge. That title was evidently supposed to pass to Sasha, but didn't. Instead, it passed to Jon. Sasha isn't sure why, but she's /furious/ about it, and willing to kill her cousin to get what she believes should be hers.
She's trying to plan to go after Jon, but once he's back in New York he evidently winds up under magical protection--which has Sasha furious and also /very/ afraid. She knows someone's following her, and so she keeps trying to find a good time to go after Jon, crossing over to the States about a week after Jon does.
And then... well... and then Martin goes off to a SHIELD operation in Boston, and Jon removes some of his magical protection... and that's when Sasha will get her window to strike.
