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

[unwieldy]

[ Oh no. Oh no, oh no.

This is worse than anything Haein could have imagined. He automatically hangs back, put off by the woman's loud sobbing and he makes it clear he wants no part of this by the look on his face. There's an attempt at hiding it when Daylight introduces him as someone "cool" as he tries to shift his expression into a more blank one rather than outright distaste.

Haein has no idea what's expected of him in this situation. He doesn't do well with... crying. There aren't any soothing words or touches from him, only an uncomfortable silence as Daylight does most of the comforting. It almost feels like he's intruding on a private moment between the two, and he averts his gaze to feel less like a creepy trespasser.

It doesn't keep him from hearing what she has to say, and while he doesn't have any outright sympathy for her, he can understand why she'd be so devastated. He's got a mother, too. It doesn't take all that much imagination to consider how he'd feel if something happened to her.

Maybe that's why when Daylight asks for something for the woman's tears, Haein jumps into action. He doesn't have a handkerchief or cloth, but they're right next to a restaurant. Without a word, he disappears into The Last Meal before reappearing not too long after with a clean cloth in hand. ]

Here.

[ His tone is gruff, and he thrusts his hand with the cloth forward to the woman unceremoniously. He keeps his eyes averted, preferring not to watch her cry. ]

[sunborne]

[ daylight takes it with a sincere, 'thanks' sent to haein before he addresses the crying woman once again. he gives her the cloth and she takes it, rubbing at her eyes and nose in her attempts to pull herself together.

he scootches back now, letting her have some space. when he's sure she's calmed down enough to interact with again, he decides to ask the one question he's been burning to ask her: ] Can we help you somehow?

Is there something we can get you or is there something we can help out with anything? We'll do what we can.

[ there's silence on her end. either she's ignoring them now or she's thinking of how to reply to daylight's offer of aid. her silence actually stretches on for so long that daylight begins to fidget, wondering if he's done something wrong or said something wrong to upset her but then she speaks:

i— i... she takes a deep breath, trying to pull herself together. do you see over there? where a crowd still lingers? can you help keep people away from the spot where my mother... she falls quiet again, unable to bring herself to say the others so soon. i can't let anyone trample all over it. not now. ]

Sure. [ of course he's going to accept it, just like that. ] We'll handle it. Do you need one of us to stay with you?

[ she shakes her head. it looks like she wants to be left alone right now and daylight allows her to grieve in peace now. ]

-Okay. I'll grab some chairs from the restaurant and maybe some rope or something. Wanna help? [ he pauses, adding, ] If you don't want to- That's fine. This is, um, a lot considering everything. If you want to hang back, I get it.

[unwieldy]

[ It's back to drawing away and watching from a safe distance for Haein now that he's somewhat helped by retrieving the cloth. The woman's distress continues to make him uncomfortable, and there's a sense of ease and relief when they're dismissed.

Honestly, at this point, Haein will do anything to get away from the crying woman. If he needs to set up a few chairs and rope off the area where the councilwoman had been shot just to be anywhere but right here, he's all for it.

And as tempting as the offer is for him to hang back, he feels too... involved at this point to simply leave. This stupid ordeal has actually managed to affect him. It's a miracle. ]

Get the chairs. I'll find the rope.

[ He doesn't wait around to hear Daylight's reply before turning on his heel in search of rope. He doesn't want to hear a reply. All he wants is for them to get this done so they can both go their separate ways and Haein can mull over these feelings on his own. ]

[sunborne]

[ daylight has the chairs set up around the designated spot when haein returns with the rope. it seems he's also finished arguing with some people, shooing them away so they would stop gawking at the spot where a councilwoman had been slain.

in the background, vera's daughter can still be heard crying now and then. thankfully(?) it's a faint sound, though it's almost eerie in its quality. now that the place is almost abandoned given the recent events, the sound almost echoes when she moves from one spot or another.

when daylight sees haein has returned with the rope, he looks relieved and happy to see a friendly face after his bout of fighting with the people. he waves at him, trying to still his best to be approachable in the wake of what they're doing. ]

Thanks for your help again. [ daylight takes the rope with a nod, beginning to connect the chairs together by using the ropes. ] I'm sure she'll appreciate this.

[ ...

when he's finished with getting a barrier around the area, he looks over at haein with a thoughtful expression. ]

Um- Hey- If you need to go, you can go. [ he rubs the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly. ] Thanks for sticking around so much even when things got kind of, um, intense.

I want to stay here and make sure she has company before she leaves or someone gets her but... If you've got to leave, you can leave now. You did a lot as is.

[unwieldy]

[ Haein brushes aside Daylight's thanks with a dismissive wave of his hand. Gratitude of any kind doesn't sit well with him. He goes ahead and allows Daylight to do most of the work setting up the barrier with the thought that he's done more than enough just by fetching that stupid rope.

After Daylight is finished setting everything up, Haein takes him up on that offer to go. ]

Yeah.

[ Again with the thanks... He really would rather not hear it and he makes that somewhat clear with the displeased look on his face. ]

I'm leaving.

[ He honestly should have left a long time ago. Without any further ado, Haein turns on his heel and heads out. ]