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

[sunborne]

[ the first thought that comes to daylight's processor when he sees someone charge at him with a sword is, 'oh! look at that! a cool sword!' because some are fated to repeat certain events in their history without realising it.

and then the second thought - one that's much more reasonable, to be frank - is a worried and frantic, 'UMMMMMMM.-'

daylight lets out a panicked squeak at the attempted hit for his leg, rearing back much as the cluttered floor will allow him. because, range or not, he's not taking any chances with his legs. he likes having legs, thank you very much!

even when he sees the man isn't coming after him anymore, daylight is not taking chances. he throws his servos up in the air, the gun now hanging against his hip thanks to the strap. his winglets pull back behind him, trying to stay out of view so he's a small a target as possible for anymore strikes that may come his way. ]

Do you need help? [ does he want help?? doesn't seem like it with how he tried to stab a daylight here. ] Because if you don't need help than I totally get it and I'm super sorry I bothered you, mister, so please don't chop me off to bits because I can't regenerate my limbs like my dad and-

[ oh no he's babbling. the worst kind of a panicked daylight. ]

[kesi]

[If Takame had the time to be baffled, he would be. But he did let Daylight continue to babble, if only just to stare in confusion, before cutting him off abruptly.]

Please stop talking. [Well. Manners had no place to him when the situation was this dire, but at least he said "please". And at last recognized that this... machine... person(?) was 1. An ally with a Jewel, one stronger than his at that, 2. Offering assistance he could benefit from to accomplish this mission and 3. Acting more akin to a nervous child than what he resembled. Having that knowledge sink in, he lowered his blade.]

If you want to help, you must calm down. We'll accomplish nothing if you panic.

[sunborne]

[ 'please stop talking' is an understandable desire anyone would want if they met daylight and he just... kept talking. it's a thing.

thankfully, day manages to hear the request over his own nervous chatter and, eventually, taper off into an uncomfortable silence on his end. while his winglets do prick up in approval at the thought of helping out, he still looks nervous. ]

So you're- You're not going to kill me? Or anything like that? [ he wants to make sure they're both on the same page.

just in case, you know? ]

[kesi]

[Had he not been in a certain mindset Takame likely would have let him keep rambling. Or at least told him to stop more tactfully.

And been slightly aware of how ironic him telling someone whose leg he tried to amputate to calm down after the fact.]

So long as you don't bring further harm to the people here, I will bring no harm to you and offer my assistance. [He couldn't speak for anything else here though, and with how sharp his tone was it felt more like a warning than a reassurance.]

[sunborne]

[ daylight's winglets hitch up in defensiveness at the words because hey! he hadn't harmed anyone since he arrived to the power plant to help out!!

he wants to argue but the distant sounds of people yelling and screaming for help all but squashes down the petty urge of his. now isn't the time for him to be grumpy or pouty about this. he wants to help and this guy wants to help and, at the end of the evening, that's what matters.

so he sighs and nods, trying to look serious when he gives a little salute. ] Yessir!

[ uncle leeds would be proud of him remembering this stuff. ]

Come on- I think I hear screaming coming this direction! It might be the workers that haven't been found yet!

[kesi]

Then I'm at your disposal.

[That argument being avoided gave the Au Ra one less thing to be wary of, though usually the confirmation of commands was given by him and not the other way around which threw him off very slightly.

Instead he focused on where he heard sounds, following what he assumed Daylight had been referring to. There were indeed sounds of screaming though he couldn't see who they were coming from yet. For as good as his eyes were he could not see through walls.

Putting his blade away until it was needed again, he looked to Daylight with a nod in acknowledgement.]

We must make haste then. I will follow you and confirm when we have a visual.

[sunborne]

Gotcha! Come on- We've gotta hurry!

[ and off daylight goes!

he's glad for the fact he sports integrated armour and for the fact he's an organic mechanoid with emphasis on the 'mecha' in terms of construction. it allows him a lot more leeway when it comes to barging through obstacles and dangers others had tobe careful of.

the thick armour defends him from the falling debris that happens to be on fire when he forces his way through crumbling walls of former rooms and hallways, trying to get towards the source of the voices screaming for help.

it doesn't take him long to see something shimmering in the distance, almost lost in the chaos of the fires and the smoke that surrounds everyone. if daylight focuses his vision enough, he thinks it's three figures huddled in a shield. it's too dark to tell who they are and what's their state but there's no doubting that they need help. ]

Hey! Do you see that? [ daylight takes a quick side step, allowing a better view for his partner in case it's being blocked by his frame. ]