agentleooc | tdm 03

Oh we were comin' around You threw me back down
You had my trust in your hands You gave it up again

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VIGILANDEN JUSTICE
Newcomers may have heard: just two weeks ago, the Blood attempted to sabotage the power plant just outside the city. For a brief time, the city plunged into darkness and during that time, Councilwoman Vera was shot and killed in the Old Town Bazaar by a young landen man. A small flower now grows where she died. No matter how many times it’s torn up, it grows back.

Following these events, the Strangers overwhelmingly chose to aid the power plant that keeps the lights on. With the perception that the Strangers are on their side, young landen men and women have grown bold. In the night, they creep into River East, where the Blood live.

Some of these gangs of landens do little more than paint Guild symbols on the walls of Blood homes: a hexagon with circles at each joint for the Guilds as a whole, the Tinker's hammer, the needle and jewel of the Crafters, the double-arrow of the Hunter Guild. They cover walls with incendiary words—words like bleeder and bastard.

Others are not so kind. They bring portable muters with them and break into homes. They steal both precious and mundane possessions, frighten children, and terrify parents. They go to the single altar in Draega and smash the treasures of the Blood’s faith, knocking over candles and lighting tapestries that honor the Darkness on fire.

Have you friends in Draega already? Perhaps you met someone at breakfast at the Queen’s Residence, and now as you walk the streets together, you come across one of these landen gangs. The news is full of reports about what they’re doing. Now, it seems, the choice is yours. Do you stop them or join them? The Queen has asked you to help broker peace between the landens and the Blood, but she’s also given you the worst freedom of all: that of choice. Perhaps you think it best to support these gangs in their desire to even the odds against the Blood.

WARM FRONT
The explosion at the power plant caused a surge of power that damaged elektriline heaters in homes across Draega, leaving many in the cold. The Queen, seeing her people in need, immediately dispatched her court to provide heating spells for these homes. She also asked the Strangers, both those still living at her residence and those living throughout the city, to lend their aid, too.

Members of the First Circle provide a quick lesson on how to cast warming spells. These can be wrapped around people or attached to items, such as small stones or large ovens. Depending on how much power is infused into the spell, it can last for an hour or two or upwards of a few days (especially when cast by a darker Jewel).

Many in the First Circle insist on going to the homes in River East—the Blood homes, places where they are more likely to be welcomed. Some certainly choose this because being around the landens makes them nervous and uneasy, but some outright refuse to help the landens, especially those who live in River North where the Guilds do their business. Prince Barret and Lords Jared and Yarl in particular won’t go to the landen parts of town, leaving you and your partner to canvas Old Town, River North, and perhaps even the slums to see if anyone would like your help.

Certainly, this will not be easy, and the Queen has promised a silver mark for each household you and your partner help.

POISONED GNATURE
Warmer weather claws its way across the land, lifting the temperatures above freezing for the first time in months. While much of the city reacts with relief, and the air in the Bazaar improves in spite of the violence and tension that hovers over the city like a black cloud, the farmers outside the city walls are dealing with their own troubles: cold-resistant mosquitoes carrying disease from the frigid mountains of Askavi.

Stagnant water fills troughs and furrows in the earth, becoming a toxic breeding ground for more of these awful pests. The mosquitoes have little interest in humans, but they’re hungry for animal blood. Most animals bitten by the mosquitoes die within a day, their meat rendered inedible.

Food is already scarce and stores run thin. If more animals die, people won’t just be a little hungry or disappointed in the tasteless porridge many are serving as a hold over until summer, they will starve.

The landen Guilds provide a thick, smelly paste that can be spread over the animals, and the Queen requests the Strangers aide the farmers. She, too, can be found working among the stables with Prince Verim or Prince Allairavar at her side, doing her part to ensure the city remains fed.

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.] …understanding that some people— [She’s being polite about it, but she definitely means the Strangers.] —don’t know how to address a Queen!

[Aren’s voice is chipper and bright. He sounds more like an eager boy than the full-grown man he is.] Quite right, Evandra. For Blood females, remembering titles is easy. Every witch you meet should be addressed as Lady.

[Evandra sounds a little surprised.] Even though male castes have different titles of address, a witch is always called Lady?

[Aren:] That she is! A working Healer or Priestess should be addressed by their caste, but if you’re just being polite in casual conversation, calling her “Lady” is enough!

[Evandra:] As they say: whether warm or rainy, when you meet on the street, you address her as Lady.

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.] …rains coming out of Askavi over the next week. Farmers are advised to cover their plants. When outside in the rain, Blood should shield and landens should wear heavy cloaks to protect their skin. Worried about lesions from the rains? The Medicos have a new salve that…

the news
[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.] …appointing someone new to the Ebon Council?

[Another man, nasally in tone. He doesn’t sound rushed so much as put upon.] It’s hard to say, Garret. With the Strangers in the city, it’s likely that Lord Grejor is waiting to see if any are willing to bring the young assassin to justice.

[Garret:] The landen who killed Councilwoman Vera is a member of the Crafter Guild and is currently being held by the Queen. There have been reports that the Queen means to implement some new process for judging offenses by the end of the week…

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"He's just a dumb kid. Didn't need a permanent injury." Bucky could have disarmed him, in the quite literal sense of the word. It seemed unnecessary.

But he is rethinking having intervened thus where people could see. Or at least, where one particularly, stubbornly interested person could see. He makes a mental note to do more observation of the fighting lessons at the palace; it might be worth adapting his own style to blend in more. "Sometimes you want your target alive and mostly unharmed. That's all."

Bucky, normal people don't refer to others as targets.

“Yeah? Never had to do a lot of that.”

Usually taking a target alive back then meant prisoners and she...really didn't do a lot of that. Some of the others did, probably. But not her. And she doesn't even raise an eyebrow at the use of the word targets because what are normal people? She's never been one of those. She's never hung around any of those either.

“Seems pretty effective though. And I guess that works, that guy's not going to forget it. And probably be relieved later on that you didn't maim him or anything like that.”

"Wasn't my primary function."

Which slips out before he means it to, but the conversation is casual in a way he hadn't been expecting, the questions being so matter-of-fact and following a different path than he thought that the answer simply comes naturally.

"It's pressure points and speed," he offers finally. "If he's grateful, maybe it'll keep him from attacking an unarmed person."

Or not, considering the tensions in the city, but it's a nice thought.

“Here's hoping. I don't mind a fight here and there, but I'm tired of dealing with this crap.”

It's boring, and honestly? While she's trying to help, she feels like it's kind of beneath her. She's still breaking up fights and other stuff like that, but as a knight/Servant/etc., she's always going to want some big important thing to do instead.

“Your primary function though? What's that?”

She's kind of weirded out by that because who nobody she knows talks like that. Then again, she doesn't know that many people so maybe it's super normal in Bucky's world. Like how a bunch of things she thinks are normal are definitely weird to everyone else around here.

"It's like this often then?" Or is this just the latest outbreak of tension? Some of the people he's tried to speak to about it are closed-lipped, and others too steeped in their own point of view. Finding the middle ground, the aggregate where a more true picture of this place is presented, has proven difficult thus far.

And it's not like that little gang was going to stop and explain themselves either before or after he intervened.

"I'm a soldier," he says finally. "I have a specific specialty. It's not important here." Unless of course he'd been brought here because he's an assassin; that thought had crossed his mind.

"All right, I get it. I'm kind of in the same boat here."

Not really, but it seems like the right thing to say. And it's close enough anyway, since being summoned to fight for the Holy Grail, really doesn't matter here. Doesn't even matter that much back home right now anyways.

"And yeah, there's been a bunch of stuff like that. Since we got here for sure, but it's definitely been going on longer than that."

He's a little surprised to hear that, but it makes sense. A place that's at least a little embattled, makes sense that they'd need soldiers. And it cements in his mind that he's here for his skills.

"So we're here to be the peacekeepers," he muses, looking around the street. The little gang hasn't bothered to come back and it's been long enough that he doesn't think they will. Just kids with their blood up then, and nothing more serious.

"Or the army." Or those skills that they both might apparently possess.

"I think the first one's closer. The lot of us aren't like any army I've ever seen."

Never mind that she's only seen a couple of them and it predates the invention of gunpowder.

"And even if we were supposed to be an army, some of the others really don't seem like the soldier type. I'd rather see them sent home than put a weapon in their hands."

It's a little harsh, but honest. Not everybody's cut out for fighting, she's seen that first hand back in ye olde medieval times, in the time period she's been summoned to and here. So it's probably for the best that they're not some attempt at an army.

It may be harsh, but from the little he's observed from morning training sessions, it's the truth. Sure there are those who can handle weapons and those who have honed their Craft, but there are also those who Bucky believes would be nothing short of a mess in a true battle.

"Peacekeepers then, to put a nice spin on it." Or soldiers-for-hire, considering they're given room and board and some sort of stipend for it. Or, perhaps, it's simply that this Queen wishes to keep them close; certainly they could be a formidable force if the lot of them banded together, couldn't they? "And conveniently brought in to serve the ruling body of the place. Funny how that works, isn't it?"

She actually hadn't thought about that one too much. Now she is of course, but she still doesn't have too much of a problem with it.

"Okay, when you put it like that, it does sound kind of...bad. But Fayura's okay. She's not the one out there setting fires or blowing crap up."

While it's true she doesn't know her super well, she didn't pick up any bad vibes from her. And given her mother, and Assassin, she's pretty sure she could tell. Though it's more likely she just thinks she can, she doesn't have any super cool deduction skills or anything like that.

Not setting things on fire is certainly a point in the queen's favor, so Bucky appreciates her having pointed it out. He doesn't know too much of what happened before he got here but from what he's been able to gather thus far, it hasn't been the most conducive to what could diplomatically be called moving forward together as a society.

"So do you think she's actually able to fulfill those dream promises? Or did I just dream up that part entirely?" With his brain, either possibility could be true.

Mordred'll think on that one. She doesn't know what the others asked for, she hasn't asked. Both because it's not her business and to an extent, she doesn't care. She knows what she asked for isn't much, and she's certain Fayura can make that one happen, but others...

Well, it's a nagging thought in the back of her head that she doesn't feel like dealing with, so she'll try and dismiss it.

"Yeah. Sure, she could lie, but with the amount of people she's summoned, if she were conning all of us, it'd be a huge problem. One that would make all the other problems here look like nothing."

If she can't, there's no reason for the lot of them to help, and Mordred's pretty sure a few of them could do a lot of damage if they were inclined to. So it being a lie or an exaggeration just doesn't work in her head. Though with how wiped out Fayura seemed after bringing them here, despite trying not to think about it, she's still not so sure.

tdm 03

this place doesn't really need intact walls anyway

what good would those be

exactly my point

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