event: a gentle explosion

[thestewards]

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.]

Comments

[shiftinglikeclay]

True. I knew a kid once who'd only eat Taco Bell refried beans, 'cause they're the only place that doesn't flavor them with pork fat. But I'm pretty sure this is okay.

[She shrugs in answer to the question]
Nope. Just woke up here this morning. You?

[inducings]

[ She nods and takes some fruit, because... it looks like the porridge is going to need that. ] Same. Did you get the whole 'weird dream, come and help and I'll help you' thing?

[ This is an easier conversation than Piper normally has with kids her age who aren't demigods - it hasn't degenerated into mocking or name-calling yet, for one thing. She starts to relax, just a little. ]

[shiftinglikeclay]

Yea. Seems like it wasn't a dream though. [She pauses and eats a spoonful of porridge thoughtfully] Then again, I suppose it still could technically have been a dream, just a real one.

Name's Alex by the way. Genderfluid, current pronouns are she/her. [The last part is said with quite a bit of defensiveness, and there's a tension in her shoulders that wasn't there a moment ago.]

[inducings]

[ Piper blinks and nods a little. If cafeterias were a nightmare for her/i>, then she can't imagine how it would have been for someone who chooses to introduce herself that way, who's had to develop that edge of defensiveness in her voice. She knows a little something about needing to be defensive about her identity. ]

Okay. I'm Piper. Let me know when you want me to call you by something else.

[shiftinglikeclay]

[Some of the tension in Alex's shoulders melts away]

It's always Alex, thanks though.

This place is weird. And I've been through all of the Nine Worlds.

[inducings]

[ She raises her eyebrows, surprised. ]

There are nine worlds where you're from?

[shiftinglikeclay]

[Alex shrugs as if it's the most normal thing in the world]

Yep. Turns out the Norse cosmology was right. Who knew.

[Her smile turns slightly sardonic]

Well, I'd known for a while, since my mother decided to be all interfering and such. I wonder if she knows about this place.

[inducings]

[ Piper blinks. Slowly. And then several more times, more rapidly. ]

Norse mytholo - [ she cuts herself off before she even finishes the world, and her next question is a little more rapid, like it's tripping to make its way off her tongue ] - who's your mother?

[shiftinglikeclay]

[Alex sighs and rolls her eyes.]

Loki. Unfortunately.

[inducings]

[ She blinks again. I thought Loki was a...

And wasn't he also the bad guy?

And... ]

I don't know a lot about Norse mythology. I just saw those superhero movies. [ Piper hesitates for a moment before she decides to take the risk. Because if Loki was Alex's mother, then she could only imagine how lonely and weird that would be, and... she doesn't just want to assume someone is an enemy because of who their parents are. That would be the same, worse, than all the times other people had assumed things about her, because of who her dad was, because of how she looked, because of her Cherokee blood. ] I'm - a lot more familiar with Greek gods.

[shiftinglikeclay]

[Yes, yes, and probably yes. Alex will be the first to admit it's complicated]

They're not exactly accurate. Then again, that's probably for the best. [Her mouth quirks up in a sardonic smile] Their Loki's better looking.

[She nods to the comment about the Greek gods]

I've met some demigods from there.

[inducings]

Really? [ She sounds a little incredulous, but maybe not for the reason that would be obvious. It's too bad there isn't spidey-sense for demigods, really. ] Who?

[shiftinglikeclay]

My... friend Magnus has a cousin, Anabeth, who's apparently a daughter of Athena. And she brought her boyfriend Percy up to Boston at the beginning of summer to try to teach Magnus to sail.

[It... didn't work that well.]

[inducings]

--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. ]

[shiftinglikeclay]

This past summer. 'Course then it turned out that Magnus's ship sailed itself so he needn't have worried. [She shrugs, mostly unconcerned.]

You okay? You're looking... shellshocked.

[inducings]

I - just wasn't expecting to meet anyone from my world here. Even if -- I don't think what you're saying has happened yet, for me. Which is -- weird. Annabeth is one of my best friends. [ And then, she realizes Alex has no reason to believe her, so she offers some confirming information that Alex hadn't given. ] If you're talking about Annabeth Chase. And Percy Jackson.

[ And the whole 'gods and goddesses' thing is still relatively new to her. An entirely different pantheon was also a little brain breaking. ]

[shiftinglikeclay]

[She nods] Yea, them. It does seem kind of weird, but weird's been the watchword of my life since, well, forever. You get used to it.

[inducings]

[ Well, Alex seems to be taking this whole thing really well. It makes Piper feel a little embarrassed about her own reaction. She tells herself to get a grip. She takes a breath. ]

Have you always known you were a demigod?

[shiftinglikeclay]

[Alex has had a lot more practice. ]

Pretty much. My mom's kinda an ass and has been meddling with my life since forever.

[inducings]

[ Piper tucks a strand of unevenly cut hair behind an ear and gives Alex a tentative smile. ]

I didn't know my mom existed until a few months ago.

[shiftinglikeclay]

[Alex returns the smile, though hers is slightly sardonic]

Trust me, that's probably for the best. So who is your mom?

[inducings]

[ She's not sure about that, all those years of wondering what had happened... but her mother had been right about one thing - Tristin hadn't been able to handle it.

She tenses slightly, vaguely defensive: ]

Aphrodite.

[shiftinglikeclay]

[Alex tilts her head from one side to the other, giving Piper a measuring look.]

Goddess of beauty, right? I could see that.

[inducings]

[ ...yeah, that's uncomfortable, as is any attention she receives about her appearance. She goes to great lengths to make it so people won't want to look at her, but Piper's not dumb. She goes to those lengths because between her mom and her dad... so logically, that evaluation shouldn't make her feel like she wants to crawl into her hoodie and pull it over her face. It does, though.

Her shoulders round a little, but she lifts her chin slightly. ]

Love and beauty, yeah.

[ The love part is very important to her. Love is the most powerful motivator in the world. ]

And I don't know if Mom would be flattered or not. She doesn't really like my style.

[shiftinglikeclay]

My Greek myth knowledge is pretty much limited to what you can pick up from D'aulaires Greek Myths. [She says it both as an explanation and somewhat of an apology for making Piper uncomfortable. ]

Neither does mine. Then again, I go out of my way to piss my mom off.

[A flash of a smile]

But I don't think either of us need to worry here. Kinda freeing, isn't it?