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

[yesterweek]

[ There's something weirdly symbolic about this whole thing, isn't there? Like the gems are a really painfully obvious metaphor for the rich, verses the proles. He keeps that one to himself though.

Her last comment is a little alarming though. ]

How likely am I to get hurt out there?

[ Are people literally going to attack him for existing in a way they don't like? ]

[thricefold]

[ the question and the concern is understandable. very understandable, really. not every day one person enters a deal of sorts and learns new (concerning) information about the deal.

zita pauses, wondering how to word this now. she could be soften the blow since he's new but it was important to emphasise that she wasn't joking. ]

When we first arrived here- [ she tries to choose her word carefully here. ] We already experienced violence when we found ourselves dragged into conflict. It was sudden and surprising and caught us all off guard.

[yesterweek]

[ A lie might be comforting, but it won't help Calvin when things get hairy down the road. The truth, however, is going to set him on edge in the immediate.

The way his shoulders tense up is obvious as he looks down at the floor. ]

From... who exactly?

[ What group does he need to be afraid of here? ]

[thricefold]

I would press caution if you ever interact with someone from the Guilds. A specific group of them - the Hunters, I believe - are the ones who attacked us.

They haven't done anything brazen since but... be careful. Best to be safe than sorry.

[ zita keeps her voice low - which is impressive, given how quiet she already is.

her expression softens into sympathy when she notices the tension in her shoulders. it reminds her a lot of how new members of the carnival - especially the recently turned - react towards the restrictive rules. ]

And I apologise for making you worry about something so soon. [ he is new. a day in, even. ] I only want you to be prepared for what may come.

[yesterweek]

[ Just the name "the Hunters" doesn't exactly fill Calvin with warm fuzzies. It's not really that surprising that the group that got violent with them went by a name like that, but... the Guilds, huh? He'll avoid them as a whole to be on the safe side then. Considering "since then" isn't even a long stretch of time.

He forces a smile, though it looks uneasy still. ]

It's fine. Honestly, I'd rather know what I'm in for here, no matter how shitty that might be.

[thricefold]

We're in this together, at least. [ zita does her best to be reassuring and certain, her face holding a quiet sort of hopefulness while her voice now holds firm.

it's a role she's used to back in the carnival and a role she's familiar with, giving her some confidence in what she's trying to do here. ] Long as we cooperate with one another, I like to believe we'll be able to get through this.

[ her offer for free healing stands, after all. and she likes to think she makes it clear that he can turn to her for help if needed. in fact- ] Is there anything you'd like to do after breakfast? I can help or accompany you.

[yesterweek]

[ He's really hoping that the offer of free healing won't ever be necessary. You go about day to day life and you're going to get injured some, but small injuries aren't a big deal. He'd rather not get hurt badly enough that he needs some actual medical-- or magical help.

The immediate help is definitely more, well, helpful, but he freezes at the question. ]

Uuh...

[ He looks around the mess hall now, the uncertainty clear on his face. ]

I haven't-- I mean, I didn't really think about it. I don't really know what I'm supposed to do here.

[thricefold]

[ ah. that makes sense- just because you accept an offer to go somewhere doesn't mean you'll have an immediate understanding of the place.

in a way, zita had been lucky to be thrown into the thick of it with how sudden everything went down and how they had been forced to go from place to place during the fires. forced and the others to get a better understanding of their area and fast.

after thinking about it, zita comes to an idea and quickly makes an offer of sorts to him: ]

How about we take a quick tour around the Queen's Residence then? So you can get your bearings and learn more about the area along the way?

[yesterweek]

[ That's definitely a positive spin to waking up in the middle of chaos. Calvin might not really know what he's supposed to do here, but he'll still take up stepping into this world during relative peace over the alternative any day. This whole thing is wild enough without adding high stress situations on top of the mess.

The offer is definitely appreciated though, and he's quick to nod, almost cartoonishly in how exaggerated it is. ]

Yeah-- That would actually be amazing. You don't mind?

[thricefold]

Of course. [ she beams at him, doing her best to give off gentle and welcoming airs. ] I'll always be happy to help.

[ she's always happy to help those in need. especially if someone is a new face. it's a thing she used to do in the carnival and she's always happy to fall back onto something that is familiar and safe.

plus- calvin seems like a sweet boy. it'll be wrong of her to not help him in some capacity she can while she's around. ]

We're in this together and we need to help each other, one way or another. It'll be an honour to keep you company while you get the hang of this.

[yesterweek]

[ Beautiful and extremely kind. Do people like her really exist in the real world--

Well, maybe not his real world. He did end up having to be spirited away to a fantasy land to meet someone like her, so...

His response laugh sounds a little strained. ]

Honored might be too generous, but I really do appreciate the help.

[thricefold]

[ she smiles at calvin, happy to hear his answer and happy to have a chance to give someone a lending hand. ]

Excellent. After breakfast then, we'll start. I'll do what I can to help you. [ she'll do what she can to give calvin an advantage in his first few days here.

they're all part of the same group now, essentially, and she'll do what she can to aid the others if she can. ]

[ ooc; we can end here if you want! i can't wait for them to interact more in the event thread. :> ]

[yesterweek]

[ Even hearing her story he has no idea how lucky he is compared to the first group of arrivals. Not only is he arriving during a (relatively) peaceful period of time, but he's managed to stumble across someone extremely helpful.

He's at least aware of the latter part, and he's not looking that gift horse in the mouth. ]

Thanks. Seriously.

[ ooc: that works for me! consider this my wrap up comment! ]