event: a gentle festival

[thestewards]

we're all just working pieces trying to fit somewhere
We wander 'round in circles and we talk in squares

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

► Direct all questions to the mods at this link.

► All NPCs except for Queen Fayura can be met at this event. Use their top-levels in the plotting post if you'd like a thread with them for this event. For your convenience, you can reach out here: Allairavar, Verim, Loren, Niall, Grejor, and Raya. They may choose to wander into your threads should you not plan anything out with them, too.

PARTY PLANNING
Dawn arrives and brings with it another group of Strangers. Unlike the first group, you wake to a comfortable bed and cheery birdsong. Unlike the second group, you are expected. As you rise, a vase with spring flowers appears on the table beside your bed. Tucked beneath the vase, you find a message of welcome inviting you to join the Queen and her residence for breakfast.

Following directions given by footmen throughout the residence’s winding halls, you make your way toward breakfast, only to find that breakfast is a beautiful disaster.

Maids and footmen rush around you, choreographed by a red haired witch standing on a chair in the middle of the entry hall. She wears an apron and a look of fierce concentration. Beside her, a list floats in the air. Pinned to her hair, her Tiger Eye Jewel flashes and swirls with power. You suspect you should just sneak out, but she’s too observant.

“You there!”

You freeze. Maybe you had a mother with eyes in the back of her head who always knew where you were. Maybe that was a teacher or some other kind of mentor. Regardless, you know this voice. You know this tone. This is a person harried and pressed, and she probably doesn’t care that you haven’t eaten breakfast yet.

“Yes, you! Stranger!”

You turn toward her and abruptly find your arms full of banners. Closer inspection will reveal each flag sewn to the cord bears a different symbol: one for the Guilds (a hexagon with circles at each joint), the Ebon Council (a pair of Jewels side by side), and Fayura’s Court (a strange, spiraling spear against a mountain peak); a sun and a moon; a cloud flush with rain and lightning; and a sprouting plant.

“Make sure those get hung on the eaves outsi—no, I haven’t seen the Lady, Carlisle, but if you—”

A Blood male has distracted her, but you’re left with the distinct impression that if you don’t hang these banners, the Head Housekeeper will hunt you down (you would be correct). Not to worry: you’re not the only Stranger living in the residence, and it takes you little time to locate someone else with an equally bomb-blasted look on their face to help you help the residence prepare for the spring festival! There are flags to be hung, simple breads to be baked, stalls to be built in the Bazaar, and so much more. Your hands work, and so you work.


HOPE BLOOMS ETERNAL
At sundown, the festival begins in earnest: people take to the streets in every section of the city, pouring into the Old Town Bazaar with rosy cheeks and broad smiles. The spring festival will last for the next six days. Three days to celebrate, and three days to work.

All around the city, banners hang from and between homes and businesses. Some fluttering banners bear flags emblazoned with only the Guilds’ symbol or the Council’s or the Court’s, and there are far more Guild banners than any other—a result of the Strangers’ providing support to the Guilds no doubt. But mixed among them are flags bearing both the Queen’s mountain, too, just not as many, and the only place the Council’s flags hang are over Blood homes.

As you make your way through the Bazaar, you hear…

A young landen man: I’ve heard the Queen is going to honor the Earth Mother and Father Sky during planting in a few days, and—
His companion, an older woman: The Blood honor only death and their Darkness. What does she care for our beliefs?

A Blood farmer: …kind of gift. Don’t quite know what to make of a Queen giving anything.
A landen farmer: Anything to help the crops grow. The Guilds mean well, but the land is overworked.

An excited little girl: —ride the unicorn, mommy! There’s a unicorn and a dragon and a centaur and a—

Near the pavilion at the heart of the Bazaar, the landen Guilds have erected technological wonders. A carousel of glittering bronze and metal lights up the night with rainbow colors. Music spills out of it, cheerful and bright as its three rings turn in lazy revolutions. Unicorns and dragons and centaurs and mermaids stand as mounts for the young and old. Nearby, the Elektriline Guild prepares a light show, projecting fantastical shapes in dazzling colors on the sides of buildings and into the night sky itself. Around the park to the south of the Bazaar, the Transport Guild has set up a racing track for unicycles and tricycles.

Booths with games line the streets. Knock down the glass bottles! Throw the ring around the spoke! Win prizes to dazzle your loved ones and delight your children!

While food has certainly been scarce, the bakeries and charcuteries have brought out their best fare at surprisingly reasonable prices. This is a time to celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of spring, and celebrate the city will.

While the Blood dress in nice clothes, the landens bring out costumes. As is tradition, some dress as Father Sky, wearing crowns of gold and flowing robes of white. Others cloak themselves in the vestments of Mother Earth: wearing costumes of green and brown, painting vines over their faces to disguise themselves and crowning themselves in garlands of crocuses and tulips. Whispers through the Bazaar say the Queen is among them, disguised as Mother Earth.


SOWING THE FUTURE
The fourth morning of the festival, the entire city rises with the dawn. Over the past three days, a strange rumor wound its way through Draega: Fayura will join the planting to give a gift unique to the Queens of the Blood.

Members of the Ebon Council and the Guilds organize groups, directing the bodies of the entire city to go to this farm or that as they step out from behind Draega’s tall, protective walls. But before you are dismissed to help till the land or plant grain seeds, you join a larger crowd at a nearby farm. The Blood airwalk, standing above the landen crowds to gain a better view.

At the head of a recently tilled field, Queen Fayura stands with a landen farmer. He grasps his hat, wringing it fiercely in his hands as her Steward, Master of the Guard, and Consort stand guard behind her. Dressed in greens and browns, crowned in a garland of crocuses that drips dried stalks of wheat down her hair, she kneels before a bucket. She calls in a knife. When she speaks, she doesn’t raise her voice, but Craft projects it across the assembled onlookers. “Blood sings to blood. This is a gift: freely offered,” she says. “Freely given.” Bright red blood blooms across her palm as she drags the blade through skin. Vanishing the knife, she closes her fist and squeezes, allowing the blood to fall into the bucket of water and mix with it.

Her Consort heals her wound when she holds out her hand, and then he steps back. She rises, picking up the bucket and taking hold of the ladle on the ground beside it. Her voice lifts in song. Though the language is unrecognizable, the melody is beautiful and full of the vibrant hope of spring. She sings as she walks along the furrows, sprinkling bloodied water on the land. Blood and Strangers alike feel the pull of magic as something in the earth itself unfurls, shuddering awake at the call of the Queen’s blood.

For the next three days, nearly every man, woman, and child in Draega assists with the planting. Children do small, simple tasks, and the older children watch over the younger ones. The adults drag plows through the warming land and spread seeds in the furrows the plows create. Queen Fayura visits each field in turn, and planting doesn’t begin until she’s sprinkled her water over the earth. Throughout the day, her vibrant song echoes around the city, and a few Blood girls, too young to yet wear a Jewel, take up the song and hum along with it.

You would do well to help the farmers. You may not have a strong arm or strong back, but there’s planting to be done and people to organize, feed, and care for.


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…

etiquette with evandra and aren
[Evandra's voice is a little bit rough and a little bit husky, the kind of voice that gives bad ideas to young men and headaches to fathers.] …do we make of a Warlord Prince’s reaction to his Queen’s blood?

[Aren, whose voice is typically chipper and bright, sounds today much more seriously than usual.] It’s a dangerous thing. Elemental, you might say. Like a storm. Every Prince is dangerous when his Lady’s blood spills.

[Evandra:] So, are we in danger when the Queen does whatever ritual she’s doing?

[Aren:] No. The Blood put great importance on, well, blood. It’s the memory’s river. Power sings in blood. It carries strength and Craft. I’ve never seen a Queen do anything like this before, but her Princes—and her court—treat it like ceremony. And it probably is.

the weather
[A soft-spoken man’s voice rumbles out of the Far-caster. He’s pleasant to listen to, with a soothing cadence to his voice.] …continued rains with intermittent sunshine over the next few days as the days grow steadily warmer. Remember that rains coming out of Askavi are dangerous to your health, and salves for lesions from exposure can be purchased from the Medicos at…

the news
[Garret speaks at his brisk pace, hurried and harried as though he has too much to say and not enough time to say it.] A new development in the story of the young landen man who shot and killed Councilwoman Vera last month: the Strangers have influenced the Queen to bring together a Tribunal not of other Queens—

[Wilt, as usual, is put upon and nasally.] As though there are many of those to go around.

[Garret, continuing as though Wilt didn’t interrupt him:] —but of the landen man’s peers, both landen and Blood.

[Wilt, sighing:] That’s correct, Garret. It seems this Tribunal of three landens and three Blood will listen to the young man’s account, as well as the stories of other witnesses, and determine a suitable punishment. This will be presented to the Queen, and she will carry out the sentence.

[Garret:] Looking now to the warming weather and what that means for trade with the mercenary settlements outside of Draega—

Comments

Piper McLean

[inducings]

A. Carnival, Carnival, We Love to Go…

[ There is something wonderful about seeing Draega put on its party clothes and put aside old hatreds for long enough to mingle about and have a good time. The change in the emotional atmosphere does Piper good, and she welcomes the chance to lose herself in the crowd.

You can see her -- 1) Doing her best to blend in with her landen-made clothes, laughing as she tries to throw a ring over bottles. 2) Doing a double-take at a mother earth costume, a strange expression of fear and disgust crossing her face before she literally shakes it off. 3) Striking a deal with a bakery booth -- she’ll work and sell for the day for fair pay and a piece of that chocolate cake. (It’s a good deal for the baker; her smile gets a line going, and if there’s a lull it may be turned on you. “Hey, can I interest you in some fresh bread?”) 4) On her break, standing on line at the carousel and running into a bit of trouble with a group of young landen men, armed prominently with a Muter, because teenage boys can share certain unfortunate common characteristics between worlds when it comes to a beautiful girl on her own. (“You don't want to ride that carousel! I can take you on a real ride here.”) ]

B. Planting Seeds

[ Queen Fayura’s song remains in Piper’s head long after the ceremony. (Blood being spilled on the land to awaken the earth was… a frighteningly familiar thing, but this, this was different. Still, if anyone is looking at Piper during the ceremony, she’s a lot more tense and a little bit more pale than normal.)

It’s not like Piper knows how to plant, but she’s willing to help. Vegetables are kind of the staple of her diet, so she’s invested in seeing this turn out well. She’ll grab a hat, dig holes, plant seeds… and fetch and carry water to other people out in the field. ]

C. Wildcard
[ Got something in mind? Throw it at me or hit me up to plan it out! ]

A-2

[arrogator]

Hey, did they say something to you?

[Mordred's not patrolling at the moment, but she noticed that weird expression change after Piper passed by the earth-mother. And has no real problems with asking someone she hasn't met before if something happened.]

[inducings]

[ Piper glances at the other Stranger, recognizing her from breakfast and training, but not having a name to put to the face. ]

Hmm? [ Piper's initially confused and then Mordred's question registers. ] Oh - no, nothing like that. [ How to explain 'she reminded me of the ancient primordial force that tried to murder everyone on my world and me in particular' without sounding like a nut? ] She just - reminded me of something not so great.

[ A little half a shrug and a small smile. ] Thanks for asking.

[arrogator]

[She'll turn to look at the costumed person again, not really getting it. She might get the whole primordial force thing better because while stuff like that hasn't happened to her, she gets it. More so than a weird costume reminding her of someone anyways.]

Yeah, don't worry about it. It's no big deal. Just want to make sure nobody's trying to mess things up. We all deserve a break, so anybody screws this up, they're going to regret it.

[inducings]

[ She raises her eyebrows a little and then shrugs. ]

Hopefully it'll take more than a few words to screw it up. But with the way people are, you never know. [ A quick smile. ] I'm Piper, by the way. I've seen you around, but I don't think we've met.

[arrogator]

The way people are seems to be one of the bigger problems around here.

[Which is obvious, but if Mordred doesn't point that out.]

And we haven't. I'm Mordred.

[inducings]

[ Mordred. Not her mythos, but... familiar in a way that 'I think I should know that name, but I can't place it' kind of thing. ]

Nice to meet you. [ She gives Mordred a quick, skimming glance, remembering seeing her - her? - in action during the morning training sessions. ] Enjoying the festival?

[arrogator]

[Her's right. Mordred's just...overly complicated about it sometimes.]

Yeah, I've never gotten to go to anything like this before. And it's a nice change to have something big going on without having to go kick someone's ass.

[She grins, pretty glad that she hasn't had to do that today.]

[inducings]

[ Piper returns the smile with a hint of wryness. ]

Do you mean here, or were things like that back home for you too?

B.

[agentlenpc]

[ Verim doesn't stray far from Fayura's side. The only reason he does so to a small degree is the presence of Allairavar at the Queen's side. Tension lines his shoulders. Golden eyes stay sharp on the crowd and the feeling of readiness radiates from him in slow, rolling waves. However, his voice is kind when approaches Piper. ]

Lady, are you alright? [ He doubts that she's tense for the same reasons as he. ]

more tl;dr from me, to no one's shock =/

[inducings]

[ Watching the ceremony had definitely been disturbing for Piper. After Verim healed Fayura's hand, she'd actually turned away. No one else here had been there, no one else had seen...

‘Mother Gaia …’ the ancient giant's voice had been impossibly deep, shaking the ruins, making the metal scaffold resonate under her feet. ‘In ancient times, blood mixed with your soil to create life. Now, let the blood of these demigods return the favor...'

The blood of those demigods had been the blood of her friends, with no one but Piper there to defend them. If she fell, and if they fell, and Gaia awakened, then it wouldn't just be their deaths but the deaths of everyone else she cared about, every other human and god on the planet...

This was not that. But it was so close, so very close that Piper was actually startled when Verim came up beside her, more in her memories than in the present moment. Her reaction is battle-ready, moving more quickly it seems that she should to turn and face him. ] Oh.

[ Her stance relaxes, much of the tension leaving her body when her reaction catches up to where she is now and what is actually happening. An observant and experienced combatant will note, however, that she's still a bit keyed up, ready to move if need be. ] Yes. Sorry. Hi. [ Glancing at him and then back at the Queen and noting Verim's own tension when she looks back. ] It's okay, you can go back to her if you want.

never worry about the tl;dr

[agentlenpc]

[ This time, there is not psychic connection between them to give Verim a hint to what races behind Piper's eyes. But, it does race and it troubles her. He remains next to her with his hands tucked into his pockets with far more ease than he feels. ]

The Lady is undoubtedly glad to have one less male hovering over her shoulder no matter how pure their intentions. [ Despite his own tension, Verim's smile widens a fraction and turns a touch wry. ] The Queen's gift is an old and needed tradition though its knowledge and purpose have, like many things, been lost over time.

But, [ He pauses and his voices gentles. ] that isn't what troubles you. There are other fields that Lady Fayura has already seen to, if you'd prefer to listen to farmers argue about which crops should be planted first.

ty ;;

[inducings]

[ He's very kind. Piper doesn't really understand why. She got the whole 'warlord prince' download when he shared his memories with her, but... it still doesn't make any sense to her. She's a stranger. He shouldn't even really see her.

But it seems like he does and... it's so unexpected and... nice.

Her brow furrows a little. He puts on a very good show of being at ease, but she saw him Hovering before, and he doesn't think it's just because Fayura lost a little bit of blood. ]

...does she have to do this for every field?

[agentlenpc]

In times past? No. [ Fayura stops to talk to some of the farmers - a mix of landen and Blood. Since Allairavar hovers, Verim doesn't feel the need. Allairavar does look Verim's way and there is a feeling that many unheard words are said between the two.

With a crook of his finger, Verim gestures to Piper, leading her off to the side away from the mountain of prying eyes following the Queen. He crouches and draws a quick and not entirely accurate map of the territory of Hayll. Inside of it, he draws out thinner lines and a dot for Draega. ] It used to be that there were territory Queens, like Lady Fayura. Beneath them were Province Queens. [ He gestures to the smaller lines. ] And then District Queens. Sometimes there might be Queens that ruled a specific town or city, answering to the District Queen.

Every planting season, all of those Queens would perform this ceremony on perhaps a few fields. [ Quickly, Verim sweeps his hand through the dirt, erasing the crude map. ] Between them all, a little blood, sprinkled carefully was enough to give back to the land.

[inducings]

[ Curious and trusting enough (when you've been inside a man's memories and he's trusted you with his true feelings about the person he loves most, it does engender a certain amount of trust), Piper follows along with him. She crouches down along with him as he draws the map.

Not for the first or the last time, she wishes Annabeth was here. She'd be so much better at discerning patterns and finding solutions and coming up with plans. All Piper had to go on was her perception and her instincts, and she reaches out to poke at one of the thinner lines Verim drew as she thinks. ]

...but now that there's only one Queen, she has to do it more? [ Frowning a little as she recalls what she'd learned in the library when she'd first asked about the law of the land and the history between the Blood and the landens. She glances up at Verim, still concerned, with her own memories shadowing her gaze. ] What does it do, exactly?

[ What did it mean to 'give back to the land'? ]

[agentlenpc]

Yes, she does. [ He stands up, dusting the dirt from his hands with a grim set to his lips. ] It's a transfer of power. The Lady gives a measure of the power from her Jewels back to the land that needs it. Without the power, the dirt no longer yields life no matter what else might be done.

[ Verim's voice remains low and cautious.] There are a few other Queens, but one is too old, another two young. The rest aren't worth the Jewels they wear.

[inducings]

[ That explains why he's so concerned, if every time she bleeds Fayura is losing power.

There are still shadows in her eyes, but also genuine concern. She also can't help but aware of his carefully controlled voice, and she doesn't know if it's because he doesn't want to startle her, or if he is very upset. ]

...will she get that power back, or does it belong to the land now?

A-4

[mollymocked]

[This reminds him too much of Fitz and Ashton, only hornier, which makes Molly more inclined to step in the same way he did with Rissa- mostly, because he recognizes Piper, but also because fuck those shitheads.

He is so tired of landen shitheads making it hard for him to sympathize with their plight....

So he steps up behind them, aware he won't be able to Charm them with that Muter on their person- cheaters- but he has two swords (that he will not use), horns, and a tail, and he can use them.]

Oh yes, the lady has to choose between a magnificent specimen of a rare beast that chases its tail in circles for a few moments before coming to a slightly disappointing ending, and an actual beast.who does the same thing with less class. Hard decision, really.

feel free to take the NPCs too if you like!

[inducings]

[ This is nothing Piper hasn't had to deal with before - and she hates it, she hates it so much. After Verim had showed her what happened to Fayura, she made a habit of keeping her knife tucked into her belt instead of in the void space they could already access it. So despite the visible Muter and being out numbered, she didn't feel particularly threatened. They were just words, insulting, disgusting words that made her feel small and angry, but she had a few choice words to say back--

Except she never got a chance, because Molly was suddenly there. While she doesn't really like letting other people fighting her battles... in the middle of the tension, she found his line hilarious. Dipping her head, she huffs a quiet laugh.

The instigator is a mix of enraged and embarrassed: No one asked for your opinion, freak.

Have you ever seen the daughter of a goddess of beauty go from annoyed and amused to a few small steps away from 'I will rip your face off if you say one more word?' It... isn't pretty. Piper takes a half-step forward, toward them. ]

No one asked you either, and yet here we are. Get lost.

/SALUTES

[mollymocked]

[Molly's lips curl back into a half-smile and half snarl and while he can't actually instill his words with power to cause harm, the effect of speaking guttural Infernal right in someone's ear is still enough to make them startle... But not move.

"Oi, fucker. You don't scare us," the buddy snaps and Molly swears if he goes for the noseflick, he's gonna dropkick a teenager into walking traffic. He took it from two gnomish punks and got them back twofold. He will not take it from these two. Fortunately, the punkass does not deign to touch him- he actually recoils as if Molly's appearance is a disease and might be catching. "You want her all to yourself, is that it? Think you'll get points for bein' a savior?"

What Molly lacks in the charisma to be intimidating, he makes up for in being able to escalate a situation. He gives Piper a look and then winks at her as soon as the boys aren't looking directly at him, seemingly occupied with how "cool" their joke is.]

She's not exactly my type. You two, though? [Molly claps his hands on each of their shoulders and looks between them, his tail lashing behind him. There's a predatory cant to his voice that even his Infernal growling can't hold a candle to.] You two might be.

[inducings]

[ They were annoyingly persistent. Piper had assumed that it was just typical teenage bravado which brought them around, but now she wasn't so sure.

She catches Molly's glance and watches the slowly dawning horror on the boys' faces as Molly makes his move. One of them curses, the other shoves Molly's hand away. "You're asking for it, freak." ]

You were the only ones asking for it. Why don't you just go and enjoy the festival?

[mollymocked]

[Molly takes a step back, wheezing in gleeful laughter that he's getting them twitchy, even if they're still trying to stand their ground.] There's plenty of women and otherwise who might really appreciate a big strong man who has to wave a fancy magic box to feel powerful. [And then, with slightly more of a threat.] Fuck off.

[There's a moment where it appears to be a stand-off, but there's now attention on them that they clearly didn't want and after meeting the eyes of several Blood who are still pissy about the landen assault on the Councilwoman, they begin to slink off. "We'll get you later, freaks."] Looking forward to it!

[As soon as Molly has said his piece and blown the two retreating boys a sardonic kiss that makes them both turn a few shades redder in rage in embarrassment, he can devote his full attention to Piper.]

Weren't they delightful? They just make you want to get irritated at their mothers.

[inducings]

[ She is still angry, and that's good. Because she hates anything close to being the center of attention, but between how angry she is at their behavior toward and how angry she is at their behavior toward Molly, Piper doesn't curl in on herself. ]

I guess some things hold true across universes. [ She scowls. ] It sucks that it's the jerks.

[mollymocked]

[The crowd doesn't seem to mind as Molly gently jostles his way to be beside Piper in line- either figuring he's earned the right to cut or that she was holding the space for him anyway. It makes it easier for him to keep talking to her without having to speak from the sidelines. ]

Honestly, that's probably the most comfortable thing worlds could have in common. I wouldn't know what to do with a place where everyone was nice. I can deal with arseholes. You can't con and cheat nice people. That's just mean and unnecessary.

[inducings]

[ She gives him a wry glance, still a little... aggravated? shaken? furious? over the whole thing. ]

Only a nice person would say that.