thestewards: (Default)
the stewards ([personal profile] thestewards) wrote in [community profile] agentlelog2019-02-19 07:00 pm

event: a gentle explosion




I see a world just out of reach
With shoulders of giants at my feet
There’s not a challenge I’m afraid to meet



The OOC plotting post for this event can be found here.

Direct all questions to the mods at this link.


STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND
You wake, warm and comfortable, and realize that you’re no longer where you were when you went to sleep. The dream was real. As you clamber out of bed and open your door, an impassive footman greets you and leads you to breakfast in a large hall filled with many, many people. They sit around a hodgepodge of tables in a mishmash of furniture—nothing matches anything else, and no two chairs are the same.

The woman from your dream catches your eyes. She stares at you with open shock. “Well,” she says, as a number of males turn to her with withering looks. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.” She smiles at you. “Welcome to Draega, Stranger. Please, join us.”

Join them at the table and have your breakfast, Stranger. There isn’t much to offer: porridge, water, a bit of milk, some wrinkled fruits, and bread. Coffee, thankfully, is not in short supply. Meet your fellow Strangers, both the ones choosing to live at the Queen’s Residence and those who arrived in the night with you.

As breakfast draws to a close, the Queen’s Steward, Prince Loren Sorey, explains that you may choose to find your own home or stay in the residence for as long as you please. Those who stay will receive a modest stipend but are required to participate in Allairavar’s morning trainings every day. At dawn. Before breakfast. Those who go will need to find their own homes among the ruined buildings of the city and make their own money.

The court begins filtering out of the Great Hall, dispersing to attend their many duties. Linger, Stranger, and overhear…

“What did you mean?” The man leaning over the Queen is Prince Allairavar. His membranous wings flare around him, and his expression is menacing. “This wasn’t supposed to happen?”

Queen Fayura doesn’t look at all alarmed by the massive man caging her against a wall. “It was a one-time spell,” she says. “The web was—” Her eyes go wide. “I need to go look at the web.” She ducks under Allairavar’s arm, which could put a tree trunk to shame, really, grabs Prince Verim, and drags him from the hall.

Allairavar bares his teeth at the wall and snarls. The sound rumbles through the room, and dark temper washes briefly through the residence before all the tangled webs tucked in corners absorb it, leaving the building peaceful and clean of psychic feeling once more.



A TALE OF TWO IDEALS
At exactly 5:46pm, an explosion rocks the city of Draega. Black clouds belch fire to the northwest of the city. Concurrently, in Old Town, a mob of landens armed with Breakers and Muters descends on The Last Meal. They surround an older, Blood woman.

i. Black Out
The power plant maintained by the Tinkers and the Elektrics has exploded. Across Draega, e-line appliances shut down and the city plunges into darkness—the sun set some 45 minutes ago.

Prince Loren reaches out to approximately half the Strangers, asking them to go to the power plant. He shares a mental map with them so they know how to reach the building, as well as the Craft used for air-walking. The tutorial is quick and hardly complete, but now you’ll be able to run above the city to reach your destination.

The power plant burns. Black smoke pours into the air. Master Elektric Doriah organizes the Tinkers and Elektrics who were able to escape on their own. A quick glance reveals how absolutely exhausted she is. When Strangers approach, she sneers but isn’t about to turn away good help.

“There are still people inside. The Blood who did this trapped us in shields.” She hesitates only a moment before collecting Breakers from guildmembers carrying them. “Take these. Your Jewel may not be able to break through the shields.”

Inside, well-ordered building is a mess of fire and melting steel. Airwalking protects your feet, and shields can keep out the heat, but you’ll need something more to protect your lungs. Put out fires, stop systems from overloading, save the machines from complete destruction, and rescue missing workers who are suffocating and cooking inside shields. The guildmembers trapped in the power plant will assist the Strangers who free them, helping mitigate the damage done to the plant and keep it from exploding the rest of the way.

ii. Death of a Councilwoman
Councilwoman Vera enjoys dinners at The Last Meal, and this is well known by everyone in the city. Today, public knowledge of her schedule doesn’t work so well in her favor.

As she approaches the restaurant with her family, a group of landens descends on them. Muters prevent the Blood from taking any action that isn’t purely physical, and this is enough to throw most of them off their stride; they’re used to relying on Craft to fight. The landens separate Vera from her family in a short-lived brawl. She shouts and screams—“Let me go! Don’t you know who I am? The Queen will have you executed for this! Your families will be thrown out of the city! You’re making a mis—”

A shot rings through the air.

The landens peel away from one of their own, a young man gripping a Breaker in both hands. He trembles as he stands over Councilwoman Vera, whose expression is frozen forever in shocked disbelief. Her body crumples to the ground, blood from a gunshot wound on her chest staining the white fabric of her blouse.

In the silence that follows the shot, Allairavar shoves free of the crowd. “Go home!” he snarled, Craft powering his voice.

No one moves.

Except the young landen man. He takes off at a run, and the crowd is still too horrified to do much to stop him. Allairavar wastes no time. He plunges after the young man. At the same time, he reaches out to the minds of the Strangers closest to Old Town. *The Ebon Council is, collectively, a sack of reeking shit, and Lady Vera was a bitch,* Allairavar tells the Strangers. *But if we don’t get between the Blood and the landens, we’ll have another war. We can’t afford another war. Keep them from killing each other while I deal with this idiot.*


AIR TIME
Whether you catch the news on a Far-caster in the city or you’re spinning the dial on your own device, you’ll hear…

the news
…angered local landen families by her hard-line position that Blood homes should receive priority as the city continues to recover from the fires set by the Hunter Guild last month. [The man speaks at a brisk pace, hurried and harried as though he has too much to say and not enough time to say it.]

Councilwoman Vera is known for her vocal disdain for the landen Guilds, isn’t that right, Garret? [Another man, nasally in tone. He doesn’t sound rushed so much as put upon.]

[Garret:] Correct, Wilt. She—excuse the interruption, but we are just now hearing— [The feed abruptly cuts off. Static pours from the Far-caster regardless of what local channel it is tuned to.]

inducings: (and not be moved by you)

[personal profile] inducings 2019-03-08 12:38 am (UTC)(link)
Piper nods. Yeah. My boyfriend -- [ can already fly

n o p e ]
-- is really good at it. So I'd like to be able to join him without having to be carried, you know?

[ Plus, walking on air is really cool.

And useful when thrown off high buildings. ]
thequitecontrary: (ugh)

[personal profile] thequitecontrary 2019-03-08 12:40 am (UTC)(link)
[ Mary nods because that makes sense. ]

Both landen and Blood were naturally upset by the occurrence. It was quite tense in the crowd. We were worried there was going to be a riot. [ She sighs. ] This world is in such a state. [ Perhaps Mary should have realized before accepting the Queen's invitation that she was walking into a mess. ]
inducings: (to breathe easy for a while)

[personal profile] inducings 2019-03-08 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
--what?

[ ...very profound, Piper, A+ response.

Except. She is sure she would have heard about an active Norse pantheon in those months before finally joining Percy at New Rome. ]


When?

[ ...not much better, really, but the way she's staring at Alex in surprise should give the majority of the game away. ]
sunborne: (059. - 🔥 - TROUBLE.)

[personal profile] sunborne 2019-03-08 02:10 am (UTC)(link)
He's about to reassure her that he's not hurt, simply in need of something to help him out, but her warning/tip for this place has him easily distracted enough.

The peppy expression falls off his face, concern shining through as his winglets perk up in surprise before pulling back as if trying to keep themselves from being seen, from being a target for some unknown force.

"... Ill will?" Well. That sure is ominous to hear from someone who's been here for a while. And Aithne doesn't strike him as the type who would joke around about this sort of thing, too, so he's going to take this seriously. "What do you mean by ill will? Are there, like, fights and stuff with the factions?"

Are the Guilds part of it... He sure hopes not. Last thing Day wants to do is make it look like he's taking sides with others when he's only looking for help.
thequitecontrary: (looking right)

[personal profile] thequitecontrary 2019-03-08 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
[ Mary can see that she holds herself with the sort of regal authority of a princess. She will defer to the other woman's rank and experience in this case.

They stand a little ways away from the crowd, as the people in the restaurant decide if it's worth it to speak to them. ]


What a disaster. [ Mary says quietly. ] They have no laws against murder here.
inducings: (to the depth and breadth and height)

[personal profile] inducings 2019-03-08 02:58 am (UTC)(link)
[ ...sitting inside... ]

...how big was the radio he saw?
arrogator: (even you can't be caught unawares)

[personal profile] arrogator 2019-03-08 03:00 am (UTC)(link)
If he’s already that bad off, it’s not like you can make it worse…right?

[She’s really not sure, this is probably the most time she’s spent around a healer since while alive, either they died or she did, and with Servants, there’s recovering over time from mana unless one of the other Servants is a jerk and has some sort of anti-healing thing. And even beyond her own experiences, it’s not like she paid too much attention to when other people got hurt. That’s something to work on now, probably. Not that she’s really thinking about that right now.]
hardlyanangel: Relaxed (Default)

[personal profile] hardlyanangel 2019-03-08 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
She stood as well and returned the nod. It would take he moment to finish the tea as she examined her thoughts.

After a few moments she made her own exit from the holding area.
hardlyanangel: Relaxed (Default)

[personal profile] hardlyanangel 2019-03-08 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
She did not answer his question directly, but asked one of her own. "Does your world not have the same?"

She was poised and listening to Day. The Valkyrie rested her chin on her interlaced fingers and she watched him.
sunborne: (156. - 🔥 - DOUBT.)

[personal profile] sunborne 2019-03-08 05:20 am (UTC)(link)
Oh.

Um.... Okay- Looks like Daylight has to pause now, needing some time to think of an answer.

"Not much... No..." He says it slowly, his nose scrunching up a bit as he's forced to admit something important: "I mean- I haven't been on Earth for a while." A long while, honestly. "But! I know they're still part of the Galactic Union. That organisation works really hard to make sure there's peace with everyone who is part of it."
song_of_ice: ([Jon] Heh)

[personal profile] song_of_ice 2019-03-08 05:43 am (UTC)(link)
[He glanced at the food, feeling no growl of hunger or interest.]

I'm afraid I don't have much manners.

[It's more of a joke, being from the hardened and wild North.]

Jon Snow.

What do you make of this world? Anything that you've seen before?
song_of_ice: ([Jon] Entranced)

[personal profile] song_of_ice 2019-03-08 05:43 am (UTC)(link)
[He doesn't know why he expected her to already have an idea how to manage her jewel, assuming she'd raise a barrier against smoke and flame. But even he didn't know how to do that. It was a bit ridiculous for him to believe she was already far more advanced than he was. Maybe because she had used her ability before.

He nodded, wrapping his scarf around him (having already brought one, as he dresses for Winter).]


I'll lead.

[With that, he charged full speed into the building.]
song_of_ice: ([Jon] Conceal Don't Feel)

[personal profile] song_of_ice 2019-03-08 05:43 am (UTC)(link)
[Whatever he might think or feel about what has passed between them, he's quick to go to her side, helping her sit up. Her jewel was darker than his, not nearly as powerful as others and already, he felt guilt for pushing her too hard.

If he knew exactly how to heal, he would offer it to her.]


I should take you back.
song_of_ice: ([Jon] Oh Hi)

[personal profile] song_of_ice 2019-03-08 05:43 am (UTC)(link)
[He couldn't be sure if there were others who were used to a world like this, but finding others that never had to find a profession before was comforting. It kept this experience from being similar to the Night's Watch, where he was too entitled and others were different than him.]

Riding lessons would be well received. [Was that how people traveled here?] What is secretarial?
romancekiller: (pic#8640872)

[personal profile] romancekiller 2019-03-08 07:19 am (UTC)(link)
[clarke just nods in agreement as she watches some of the people from the crowd look between the two of them tentatively as they both speak] Yes, that's right. I know you're afraid but we're here to listen and help as much as we can.

thedarkbond: (halberd revenger)

[personal profile] thedarkbond 2019-03-08 12:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[That's definitely sounding familiar, and Ren hums a little in curiosity as he twirls a finger around the edge of his cup.]

Oh, that sounds a lot like where I come from...most places don't have monarchies alone, but some of them have sort of a combination of that and elected people. Like where I come from.

[He's trying to breadcrumb the fact that there's a reasonable chance they're both from Earth without outright giving it away, because that'd be no fun at all.]
thedarkbond: (knight of meditation)

[personal profile] thedarkbond 2019-03-08 12:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Mmm, it probably wouldn't go down well, would it? Though I haven't been here long enough to know what the Queen is like normally. [He encountered her in his dream, obviously, and saw her speaking with her court at breakfast, but even Ren can only read so much out of a person in that little time. Ruling in a situation like this already sets her as presumably competent and no-nonsense, but the intricacies of it will take a bit more time to pick up.

A beam groans on their left, and Ren shifts to the right side of the path, eying the roof somewhat warily as he passes.]
I wouldn't want to know what she might do if she catches who did this, though...

[Well, actually, he would, because they'd probably deserve every ounce of punishment they got, but that would probably sound a bit vicious.]
thedarkbond: (grim reaper)

[personal profile] thedarkbond 2019-03-08 12:56 pm (UTC)(link)
What happened the first time? [The question is pretty prompt in answer to that - having literally arrived today, Ren only has minimal knowledge of what's happened before then. If this kind of thing is going to be a habit, then he should probably learn more about it. And who keeps causing it, ideally.

There's a section of roof collapsed into the corridor, and Ren navigates carefully around it as they go on.]
I can't say I disagree with you, though. Especially something like this, trapping people inside in a way that makes it harder for their own to save them...that really is needlessly cruel.

[There's something about the way Ren says those last few words that rings a little too calm and almost cold, as if it's standing in for an emotion he's trying to squash down for the moment.]
thedarkbond: (darkveil)

[personal profile] thedarkbond 2019-03-08 12:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[That makes Ren pause, though it's decidedly not at the insult, considering his expression is now leaning more towards that of someone suddenly rather worried about Lalli's wellbeing and/or sanity.]

So what countries do you think are real, then...? [Lalli's been insistent enough about his own opinion so far that he can't imagine he'll have too much trouble getting an answer, so he might as well figure out what he's talking about a bit.]
thedarkbond: (judgebau)

[personal profile] thedarkbond 2019-03-08 12:56 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know much about it either, but I guess anything that could reach out to so many people from so many places seems to me like it must be pretty strong...

[Ren's not entirely unversed in magic, but he's much more used to things like psychic powers that don't really run on quite the same wavelength. Magic isn't really a thing on his planet, unfortunately.]

Mmm, in my country we had emperors and empresses instead - and a leader that the people picked, too - but it's a similar sort of thing, right?
verstoned: (So we rewrite our lives)

[personal profile] verstoned 2019-03-08 01:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Not our business what Her Grace does, but it's her First Circle what's got more temper than her. [Because he's spoken to her, and she's level-headed-- but the Warlord Princes are hotheaded and more than eager to show it.

Rhus is unphased by the creaking of the building around them, but would be far more reckless without the man over his shoulders.

Except he's noticed another issue as he turns his head to look about for the exit--]


Hells, issat another one trapped? [Or is he hallucinating?]
fulminatum: (25.)

[personal profile] fulminatum 2019-03-08 02:15 pm (UTC)(link)
I'll show you. The others are with me, but we've got room for one more.

[ As if he's not going to be a busybody with wherever she chooses to stay, anyway. ]
theladyofwinterfell: (Default)

[personal profile] theladyofwinterfell 2019-03-08 02:43 pm (UTC)(link)
It's barbaric, if you ask me, but I suppose many things about my own home would seem barbaric to this place. I just don't see how there cannot be a law against taking someone's life.

( That's the greatest betrayal of the Gods, in Sansa's opinion, and worse even than rape. )

Still, we must respect and work within their laws and their justice. Applying my own to it won't help.
theladyofwinterfell: (but if i kiss you)

[personal profile] theladyofwinterfell 2019-03-08 02:49 pm (UTC)(link)
I just need to rest for a moment, that's all. I'm not used to being able to do these sorts of things. I'm used to working with my hands and my mind, not...not what seems like the very marrow of me.

( There's no other way to describe how it feels to have her reservoir of power tapped and Sansa doesn't know if she'll ever have the easy words for it that the proper Blood do. )
theladyofwinterfell: (every stumble)

[personal profile] theladyofwinterfell 2019-03-08 02:55 pm (UTC)(link)
( A young woman who had been injured scrambling over a chair to get away from the gunshot approaches, offering a sprained wrist to Clarke as her friend settles near Sansa to watch. Sansa isn't expert at determining jewels as of yet but these two appear to be Rose-jeweled, lighter than both she and Clarke. )

I am of no use healing but I would certainly listen to anything you saw or any concern you might have. My jewel might well be useless in this endeavor.

( A bit of a lie, possibly, but Sansa pairs it with a smile and the two women seem the tiniest bit more at ease. )